The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian
by Dev's L's
Summary: Renji was turning into something he never thought he would be. And both Byakuya and Ichigo are turning somewhat... protective? What will happen to Renji then, in the midst of war against Aizen? Summary inside. slash, ByaRen IchiRen. R&R!
1. Chapter 1: A Strange Thing

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: Hello guys! My first story! Yeah! Anyway let me explain the summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it.

Warnings: Mild swearing, cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…)

"Speaking"

_Thought_

Chapter 1: A Strange Thing in the Morning

After Aizen's treachery, everything seemed to return to normal for the Gotei 13. A peaceful morning just began in Seireitei when a certain shinigami officer just has to make some problem already.

"Taicho! Ohayo, kuchiki-taicho!" greeted a loud mouthed red haired shinigami with a stupid grin on his face to a black-haired stoic man in front of him. The red hair was wearing a black shihakushou and a badge on his left sleeve. On the other side, the black haired man was wearing the same shihakushou but with the addition of a white sleeveless haori with the Japanese symbol for 6 on the back, and hair pieces called kenseikan, the accessories that were worn by the head of the Kuchiki family.

"Renji."

"H-hai, taicho…?" stuttered the red hair shinigami, nervous under the intense glare from his taicho.

"Stop being a nuisance this instance. You are ruining my calm mood. I know we are living under the same roof, but please don't make me unsheathe my sword so early in the morning." Said the black haired man to his subordinate with calm and collected voice that hid the threatening growl. Renji cold sweated then backed away from his taicho, while the other man turned and walked away.

The morning passed and it's time for Renji to go to his lieutenant meeting, knowing his taicho had left earlier for the captain daily meeting. Renji hurriedly ran and jumped from place to place to go to his lieutenants daily meeting too, so he won't be late.

Renji grinned side to side at the thought of summer vacation was coming his way shortly. He panted because of his speed to the lieutenant meeting building and because of excitement. He finally arrived at the front of the building and stepped inside.

He was greeted by the sight of Hisagi Shuuhei of the 9th division, Kira Izuru of the 3rd division, and Matsumoto Rangiku of the 10th division. "Ohayo, Renji!" greeted the large breasted woman cheerfully as usual. "Ohayo, abarai-kun" greeted Izuru with his calm smile, and Shuuhei just said "Ohayo" with a small smile.

"Aah, ohayo." greeted Renji back with a big grin.

"Hm? Why are you so happy about Renji?" asked Rangiku while the other guys nodded their agreement. Renji just shot them a look with a toothy smile plastered on his face that seemed will rip apart if he keep that smile all day long. The others just looked confused for a while then said "Ahh…" in unison.

After that event, the other lieutenants started to coming in the building and then before they knew it, they all screamed and laugh happily at the announcement of summer vacation. Shuuhei and Izuru, as the silent and shy type, shouted their happiness too.

After the lieutenant meeting ended, Renji, Rangiku, Shuuhei and Izuru walked back to their barracks together. "I wonder if the taichos will have the vacation too…" Rangiku wondered while the others looked at her.

"Well, of course they will! It will be so not fair if they don't, right?" said Renji. "Yeaah." said the others, looking unconvinced. "Let's just see for later." said Shuuhei, reassuring them. They just nodded and went their separate ways to their division barracks.

_Hmm, I still have time until the captain meeting is over… Let's go to the field. _Renji said in thought.

So, Renji went to the flower field to just rest a bit. But when he arrived there, he felt a tugging sensation in his heart, but ignore it. He walked to the middle of the field, and when he almost laid down, he spotted a lily flower on his right side.

_That's strange… It might be a flower field, but I never see a lily here, not even once…_

Then he felt the tugging sensation again. He then instinctively reached for the lily with his right hand then he felt something like electricity ran from the tip of his ring finger that touch the lily to his chest. _What is this feeling?_ He asked silently. _My body feels so light as well as my head. Maybe it's because I'm happy from the announcement? No... Or is it because…_ He trailed his thought while looking at the lily. " Of course not. Well, maybe if I go to the barracks, things will return to normal." Renji said, reassuring himself. He then sigh and standing up," What a strange thing so early in the morning."

Waaaaaaa! I'm so sorry if this sucks! It's my first time…

Did I make Renji sound OOC? Please give me your opinion, and for that you have to review!

Translation:

Taicho: Captain

Fukutaicho: Lieutenant

Gotei 13: the 13 Division Imperial Guards

Shihakushou: Garments that all the shinigamis wear

Haori: Jacket that looked like kimono, worn by only the taicho, whit exception of the 1st division fukutaicho, Choujirou Sasakibe.

Sorry for all the grammar mistakes! And pleeease review!


	2. Chapter 2: Asking for Lunch

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: Hei, I'm back! Sorry the last chapter was so short. I promise I will try to make it longer…

Anyway, this is the next chapter! I can't believe I can finish it overnight!

Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it.

Warnings: Mild swearing, cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love).

Enjoy!

"Speaking"

_Thought_

Chapter 2: Asking for Lunch

After the event in the flower field, Renji hurriedly went to the 6th division squad barracks. He ran with speed, but not too fast because he didn't want to get exhausted in front of his taicho for he didn't want to get any bad remarks from him early in the morning, again.

Renji's head was filled with so many questions about what just happened in the flower field, but he decided to get over it and think about his summer vacation. Thinking of the vacation, Renji smiled softly and silently wondering if his taicho would get a vacation too. _No matter he gets it or not, I will be still having fun…_

While Renji is in his way to the barracks, Kuchiki Byakuya is already inside his office, early as usual. He sat silently, thinking over the captain meeting this morning.

_*Flashback*_

_Byakuya stepped in to the 1__st__ division meeting room with his usual stoic expression and calm and collected manner. He saw a few captains—Soi Fon,Ukitake Juushiro, Hitsugaya Toushiro, Unohana Retsu, and Kyoraku Shunsui—already inside, waiting for the other captain to come. _

"_Hm? Ohayo Kuchiki Taicho." Greeted Juushiro with a smile, followed by Shunsui and Retsu. Soi Fon and Toushiro just nodded their head. Byakuya also nodded his greeting and take his place. He kept waiting with calm just like Soi Fon and Toushiro, while Shunsui and Juushiro were chatting about something. A second later, a blush appeared on Soi Fon cheeks as she started to smile away some small smiles (A/N: You could guess what or _who_ she was thinking...Waahaha). The others and Byakuya just looked at her secretly while keeping some confused gazes. She then regained back her composure and coughed a bit. The others then turned back to their position._

_As time flew, the rest of the captain started coming inside the room and finally, the soutaicho made his appearance. The soutaicho, Yamamoto Genryuusai, walked with all his greatness to the front, where he would make some announcements. When he reached his spot at the front, he placed both his hands on top of his crane—that is actually a sword—in front of him, a gesture he made every time in the captain meeting._

"_Good morning to all of you—"Genryuusai greeted all the captains, but didn't give them a chance to greeted back because he immediately said,"—Today is the last day of spring. Which mean tomorrow is the fist day of summer; that I know all of you aware of it." Zaraki Kenpachi then muttered "Time sure flew fast…" that everyone dismissed quickly, hearing the soutaicho had begin to talk again, "So that is why, without further complication, I will have all of you enjoy your summer vacation!" said Genryuusai with a smile on his aged and wrinkled face. All the other taicho have different reaction to that, but they hid it until the soutaicho have gone back to his office." But of course you still have works to do today, and you are still in charge of your squads, so if they need your assistance or paperwork that you need to sign, please do it. That is all, enjoy your day." said Genryuusai then left the room to get back to his office, where so many paper works to do. _

_A couple of second later, Knepachi shouted,"OH YEEAH! IT'S SUMMERTIME!" then he laugh like a maniac while the other captains shot him some amused gazes. "He's right. Tomorrow, there is work no more!" All the captains seemed to be having their time, while Byakuya just being…Byakuya. But if you looked closely, there was a smile there, it was so small though. Then he silently walked back to his barracks, greeted by a few shinigamis on the way that he just nodded off. He arrived at his barracks, greeted again by his subordinates that he nodded off as well, and then he walked straight to his office, making a beeline from the office door to his table. _

_*End of flashback*_

A summer vacation. Over. 2. Months. _Hmm, what should I do on that time?_ He wondered. As he started to came up with a few not so bad ideas, the door to his AND Renji's office slide open in a one smooth motion, that revealed his fukutaicho, Abarai Renji.

"A-ah, taicho! I see you've done with the meeting, ne?" Asked Renji, answered with a nod. He then proceeded to his own table and started to do his paperwork.

"Uh, so… Taicho, I wondered. Will you have a summer vacation?"

"Actually yes, yes I am."

"Ah, I see…"

"And I see you're quite surprised there, abarai fukutaicho." pointed out Byakuya to Renji. "Well—""I was surprised too, when I heard about the announcement from the soutaicho. But I think it is quite fair, because it is just once in a while, and everyone deserve some days off or a vacation." explained Byakuya while at the same time cutting Renji's words off. "Oh, I see. Well, I just curious. Thanks, taicho." Byakuya nodded to Renji who nodded as well, and then they got back to their works.

****linebreak****linebreak****linebreak****linebreak****

It was lunchtime, but Byakuya was still working. Renji, who saw this, felt a tugging sensation again on his chest, and before he knew it he said,"Kuchiki taicho, why don't you just rest for a while. Let's go have something to eat."

Byakuya hadn't seen that coming, his eyes widen in surprise as well as Renji's. Renji blushed brightly to his ears then stuttered," I-I mean… uh… You shouldn't push yourself too much! I know you haven't eaten your breakfast this morning, so… Just to fill you stomach... Uhhh..." _This is awkward..._ He thought then dismissively said, "Well, if you don't want to, then I guess I can't force you so..." he trailed off indicating that he will go grab some lunch anyway. Then almost immediately, a strong hand caught his right arm. "I'll go... I think I am kind of hungry now..." Said Byakuya, then let go of Renji's arm. He stood up then walks out of the office they share.

"W-wait up, taicho!" Said Renji loudly then joining his taicho quickly, all but smiling to himself.

Waaaai! I finished it! This chapter I mean. So, did you like it? Hate it?

Please review! Oh, and maybe you know this, but for you that don't, soutaicho means captain commander or the head captain.

That's all, and please, please, please, REVIEEEEEEW! Critics are accepted, but please not too harsh; I have a sensitive mind... JK...


	3. Chapter 3: Unexpected

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: Hi guys! This is chapter three! Oh, and I have got my FIRST EVER REVIEW! Thanks a lot for **Black Cat Angel**!

So, please guys! Review already!

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for something big was going to destroy them.

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love).

"Speaking"

_Thought_

Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Unexpected

"Taicho, do you know that there is a lily in the flower field in the forest meadow?" ask Renji, to lighten the tense mood around him and his seemed like he didn't hear a thing. Renji sweat dropped at his pathetic attempt to have a nice little chat with his ever-so-cold-that-even-though-calm-but-can-be-too-harsh-for-everyone-liking-if-he-wanted taicho._ I'm so pathetic…_

Renji was walking behind Byakuya, so he didn't see Byakuya's little smile at Renji's attempt. Byakuya then noticed that Renji didn't say anything else before he answered him, so he took pity of the younger man and answered,"No, because as far as I know, that flower field ony grows chrysanthemums, red blossoms_, dawn plashes, _and irises. There has been no issue about lily in that field."

"Oh, I see…"

"Why did you ask, have you seen one there?"

"Well—" Renji began,"—just this morning, after I went to my daily meeting, I decided I would go to that field, you know, I still got time before duty so… Anyway, I went there, and right after I stepped into the meadow I—"Renji trailed off. Byakuya, not hearing Renji's footsteps anymore, stopped and turned around.

"You…?"

Renji seemed to be in a mind battle with himself. He bowed his head and closed his eyes tightly then shook his head. Byakuya looked worried, a little, but let him continued his inner battle.

_Uhhh… Should I tell him about those tugging feeling? No, he would be worried and…Who am I kidding? He? Worried? About me? Yeah right…_ Renji realized that he had stop walking then he decided to tell his taicho about it later, instead he told him about other things,"Uhh, I was tripped! I tripped, but it didn't feel hurt… Well anyway—"Renji said, started to walking again, his taicho followed him."—I was about to lie down, but before my head hit the grass, I saw a very pretty white lily on my right…" _PRETTY? FOR KAMI'S SAKE! ISN'T IT ENOUGH TO MAKE ME ACTED LIKE A CARING_ WOMAN_ FOR ALL MORNING ALREADY? _Renji cried in his mind.

"Then what happened?" asked Byakuya, seemingly interested in the topic, of course because of Renji's reactions when he told him the story. Renji blushed head to toe then he stuttered, "W-well, w-why don't we continued this when we reached a food shop… Or do you prefer a restaurant, taicho…?" _Restaurant_. Renji guessed silently. _It has to be…! After all, it's THE Kuchiki Byakuya, the Head of the Kuchiki NOBLE family…_

"Either is fine by me. But I think we should go to a restaurant, for you seemed to be addicted to that ramen shop where you always go for lunch." said Byakuya surprisingly. "H-how do you know?" asked Renji. "I have my source." Explained Byakuya shortly, but in Renji's ears, it was like,' I just know, okay? Now just shut up and let's find a restaurant, I'm starving!' Renji snickered, Byakuya just looked at him oddly, then he blushed as red as his hair.

Byakuya and Renji had been walking for a while, in search of a—fancy—restaurant. In their walk, they crossed path with Juushiro and Shunsui. Renji saw them first then bowed, "Konnichiwa, Ukitake taicho! Kyoraku taicho!" he said respectfully. Byakuya nodded to both of the other captains.

"Konnichiwa, Abarai-kun, Byakuya." greeted Juushiro, Shunsui was right behind him, giving Renji and Byakuya a crooked smile.

"Are you two out for lunch too?"

"Ukitake taicho and Kyoraku taicho are going for a lunch?"

"Aaah, yes! What a great opportunity! Let's go for lunch together shall we?" Invited Kyoraku. Byakuya just stood there, unfazed, leaving all the answering to Renji. "Well, if Kuchiki taicho doesn't mind… He doesn't mind at all! Let's go taicho-tachi!" exclaimed Renji quickly, wanting more companies than just him and Kuchiki taicho… That would be awkward, he thought. Byakuya didn't object, so they decided to have lunch together.

"So, where are we heading?" asked Juushiro to Renji, obviously Byakuya wasn't a good choice to make an easy talk. "Well, just now, I and taicho were searching for a/fancy/restaurant. Then Ukitake taicho and Kyoraku taicho came." Explained Renji, Byakuya was still unfazed; no emotion was shown on his face, or his eyes._ I wonder what's wrong with him..._

"Well, if a/fancy/restaurant is what you seek, the let's go to this restaurant then!" said Shunsui.

The fancy restaurant that Shunsui talked about was a restaurant that called 'Junsuina Yuri' or 'Pure Lily'. It was like the most expensive restaurant there was. The outdoor decorations were of white lilies and silvers, there were glimmers of small diamonds in the wine fountain! The fountain itself was made of pure kidou and silver combined by an ex-shinigami artist. The pillars were pure white and covered in white lilies. But something was not right, Renji decided.

Even though Renji was surprised to see such a fancy building, but he thought something was not right with this picture, or something was… _missing… _He shook his head. No, he couldn't effort to act up in front of everyone, not in front his _taicho…_ No, he would act like usual, and no one was going to get worried over him.

The party entered the fancy restaurant. Renji gasped in awe as he saw the indoor decorations. There were so many lilies, they were everywhere! And there were so many silvers and diamonds too. The pillars inside were very big and so white, they look so..._Majestic…_ It was like as if Renji was in front of the Gate of Heaven. He looked around, there were not too many people inside, the only people there were, Renji thought, maybe all nobles! He can't effort to buy food from such an expensive restaurant!

"No need to worry Renji, I'll pay. After all, I'm the one who's forcing you to go to a restaurant." said Byakuya. Renji blushed faintly hearing that. _What's going on with me? I blush too much already! _

A waiter and a waitress came their way, telling them to sit wherever they want and to relax. So, the party seated in the upper left corner of the fancy restaurant, and it was time for them to order.

"So, Abarai-kun, what do you want to order, hmm?"

"K-kyoraku taicho! Well, umm… I don't… think I am hungry…"

"Oh, c'mon, don't be shy. Order anything you like."

"B-but Kyoraku taicho, all the foods here are very extremely expensive… I can't afford to pay!"

"I'll pay your bill, so just order, okay?" said Juushiro with a smile.

"Ukitake…taicho…Uhh…"

"Renji." called Byakuya. Renji immediately turned his head around to face his taicho, only to face him a little _too _close for his liking, he instinctively blushed. His lips were about only 3 centimeters away from his taicho's. Then he felt his chin was being lifted by a hand then he heard Byakuya said," I told you not to worry. I will pay your bill, it was my decision to bring you to a restaurant, so just order your food." it was almost like a whisper, very sensual because their lips were almost touching. Juushiro and Shunsui have goofy smiles on their faces with mischief looks.

"Of course I won't pay for the two of you, for you already have your own enough money to pay." stated Byakuya firmly. The others sweat dropped.

Renji ordered his—tried to order one that was the cheapest, but forced to order one that is—expensive food. His taicho to be exact, who was ordering his food for him without his concern. Renji almost cried when he saw the bill for his food. But when his food was arrive, he could smell a very pleasant aroma, the mixture of a lily flower and richly seasoned grilled chicken. He looked at his taicho's dish; it was a roasted with milk beef, and a red lily flower as the décor. Juushiro was having the same dish as Shunsui; a steamed tuna with seasoning and a broths soup. Their drinks were of course green teas.

… _Some moments later_…

"How was your food, Renji?"

"It was… very great!" _Though I'm still wondering what makes 'em expensive? I'm sure even I can cook something like those… maybe… a little… with some burns here and there… Damn, why am I such a bad cook?_

"Really?"

"Yes! Really...But I feel bad about the bill… I-I know that you'd pay, but still, it was like freakishly expensive, taicho!" said Renji to his taicho that from what it looked like glaring at him.

"Hn."

Renji sweat dropped. Byakuya kept on walking while Juushiro and Shunsui stay behind, smiling and reassuring Renji. "Haaaaah…What a day…" Renji sighed.

_Thump!_

"Uuuugh…" Renji was in pain. Juushiro and Shunsui immediately assist him.

_Thump!_

Renji saw Byakuya turned around quickly with shocked eyes and immediately by his side in a millisecond.

_Thump!_

Renji felt his chest being ripped apart by a sword.

_Thump!_

He heard his name was being yelled by some…one…familiar…

_Thump!_

His heart beat slowing down.

_Thump!_

The pain subsided, replaced by blurry image then… darkness welcomed him…

It's done! So, it's a little longer than before, eh… JUST A LITTLE THOUGH!

*hic* *hic*

But it's alright I guess, just start from the bottom, and then reached the top of the mountain! IN NO TIME! WAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Kidding.

I will upload more soon if you JUST do this little simple thingy down here:

Revieeeeew! Please…?


	4. Chapter 4: Almost Revealed

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: Chapter 4! Chapter 4! Yaaaaay! And I've got three reviews now! In this chapter, Renji will find out abut himself more! And someone unknown shows here! Well, but then he will forget about it though… Well, it's getting closer and closer to the main event!

Black Cat Angel: Thank you soo much for your support! And I hope you don't mind with the stories later on, because Renji would be very different! But I'll still make him blush, so don't worry!

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love).

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 4: Almost Revealed

_Darkness…_

_The darkness surrounded him… _

_He couldn't feel anything; his body, the temperature, nothing…_

_Where is he? Is it dream? Is he unconscious? He thought of some possibilities, but couldn't grasp them. He tried to walk, but he couldn't move his limb. The red hair was panicked now. _

_Where is he? Why can't he see anything? He tried desperately to move, but he still couldn't do it. _

_Just when he was about to give up, in front of him, he saw a spot, a tiny spot of light. Seeing that light, he saw a glimmer of hope. He must get to that light. But how? He couldn't even raise a hand! Oh, he can… That's weird. He brushed the unimportant detail off for now; he must get to that light, if he wanted to get back to the real world, where all his friends were waiting for him, where his taicho was waiting for him…He blushed at the thought…_

_So the red hair walked, step by step, the tiny spot of light became bigger and bigger, spreading faster than his walking speed, it was like the light couldn't wait any longer to burst. The red hair shielded his eyes from the bright light. And when he opened his eyes…_

_He saw white everywhere now, the very contrast of his earlier state. _

"_Renji…"_

_He heard someone whispered his name. Renji turned his head to the source of the voice, but he saw no one._

"_Renji…"_

_He heard that voice again, clearer this time. It was a voice of a man… Deep and soft, smooth and husky…_

"_Renji… Can you hear me?" He heard the man voice, right on his ear. Renji immediately turned around, to meet a very shocking figure._

_The person he expected to be a man, was a figure coated with light, Renji couldn't see the figure's face or the figure's body, it was just a pure light silhouette. "Wh-who are you?" Renji found himself asking the silhouette man with timid voice, surprising himself, he couldn't even believe it was his voice at all. Was he all that scared?_

"_So you CAN hear me…I'm glad…Renji…" The silhouette man said, rather to himself than to Renji, that from the way he spoke, he seemed to be smiling. "Ahh, I see, your name here is Renji… Not a bad name, I guess. But I prefer calling you… Hime. That's fine right? Of course it is." The figure said, not giving Renji a chance to object. "U-uhh..." Renji stood there speechless._

"_Hime-chan…So you still don't remember me?" asked the silhouette man in front of him, with a hint of sadness. "I-I never met you, how can I know? Besides, you're just a bunch of light; I can't see your face at all!" protested Renji, feeling guilty and sad of no reason. And there was this feeling of missing something, or someone… That feeling comes again, he thought._

"_Ah, I see…But I can see inside you, that your heart recognizes me…That means you will wake up soon…I'm very happy, Hime-chan." He said, making Renji even more confused. "So, I have seen you before? And is this dream? Am I unconscious right now? Please tell me what's happening!"_

_The figure raised his right hand—obviously a man, with husky voice and all—to his chin and looked like he was thinking. "Hmm, let's see…Yes, kinda, absolutely, and I will explain about it now." He said, answering all Renji's questions in one shot. Renji stood, blinked. Twice._

"_There is not much to tell, because you are about to be awake anytime after you regain your consciousness…And what I mean by 'awake' is... a secret, you will find out yourself later. And if you're questioning of what or who I am, then, it will be revealed later when you've awaken too…Well, it would be different though, because you won't remember what has happened here, so just pretend you never have this dream at all... And Hime-chan, I missed you…" said the figure, he suddenly grabbed Renji's right wrist softly then he kissed it. It felt alien to Renji, because he had never kissed by someone, and he obviously had never kissed by a figure-alike-light. But he still blushed; because after all, it was hi very first kiss—on the back of his hand. The man looked up to see Renji's bashful face became more and more red and shut his eyes tightly. _

"_Cute." The figure muttered, pulling himself from going any further. He let go of Renj's hand and said once more," You have such smooth skin… And it will be better later on… You're beautiful, my Hime…" _

_A moment after the figure said that, he began to disappear, and the last thing Renji saw was…_

_A smile… and an "I love you."_

"Renji!"

"Abarai-kun!"

"Renji!"

"Abarai!"

"Abarai-san!"

"…Renji."

Renji heard so many voices; they filled his mind, and sounded so familiar. Was he awake now? He looked around with his eyes, he saw wooden roof and he heard beeping sound too. Where was he? Is he already in his room? No… Remember Renji, remember…

He was walking with his taicho for lunch, met Ukitake-taicho and Kyoraku-taicho, ate lunch together in a fancy restaurant, walking to his home—his taicho's to be exact—and then he… And then he what? He… collapsed! Yes, and that meant, he was in a hospital, or the 4th division barracks to be exact… He looked around again, feeling gazes on him. "Renji!"

"Huh?" Renji then saw a bunch of people inside the room he was in. There were his friends; Ikkaku, Yumichika, Rangiku, Shuuhei, Izuru, and Hanatarou. And then there were Juushiro who looked relieved, Shunsui who smiled, Retsu who smiled as always, and his taicho, Byakuya, who looked indifferent. _He doesn't look concerned at all… _

"Renji, you idiot! Why you always make people worried? *Sigh* you know how long have you been unconscious?" asked Rangiku, looking more serious than usual. Renji shook his head, no. He looked at his taicho, who still seem to be so uncaring about him, but Renji didn't notice his taicho's eyes glimmer of…concern? Renji then turned his head back to Rangiku,"How long…?" he asked.

"Almost a week... I found out about this right after you fainted—"Rangiku said, continuing her explanation,"—Kira knew about this the day after I found out, along with the others. Ukitake taicho said you fainted in the middle of your way home after lunch because of nothing. He said you were just fine until you fell to the ground, screaming in pain, then unconscious. A lot of people worried you know, the others came here daily, checking on you even though they should be enjoying their vacation. Ukitake taicho, Kyoraku taicho, Komamura taicho came daily too. Even Ichigo came here once when we told him about this, along with his friends of course. Kuchiki came here all the time; she even stayed for the night yesterday."

And she never even once told him about his taicho… That means he didn't come here daily, just like the others? He felt sadness in his heart, but ignoring the pain. Of course he didn't know Rangiku hadn't finished yet. "And of course Unohana taicho always check up on you from time to time, to check if you have made any progress or not. She said three days ago that she didn't know how long you will be in the comatose state, but she assured us that you won't die easily, for no bad virus or anything was found within your body. Well, the stubborn one who never wanted to go home at all is—"Rangiku said, then Renji wondered, _someone was always here all the time? Wow… _"—the same person who did his paperwork and yours altogether when you were unconscious right here, Kuchiki taicho." She said, smiling at Renji and his taicho.

**Renji's POV**

I couldn't believe it. I couldn't even believe it! Taicho? THAT taicho? That taicho who never complimented me, who had a stoic face, who always had cold voice, who was harsh with words, that taicho? Kuchiki taicho…always stayed here all the time…? No way… No way at all…. I still couldn't believe it…

Wait, we already on vacation… So why did he have to do paperwork? I dismissed it, I would ask about it later to him myself… Oh! I forgot! I promised him that I would tell him the rest of my flower field story, but couldn't do because Ukitake taicho and Kyoraku taicho came, and I forgot about it too… Well, I was sure he forgot about it already…

I sat up for the first time in seven days groaning because it was so damn hurt! My back was on fire! Then I noticed someone was helping me sit. I turned my face, to saw Kuchiki taicho's face oh so close to mine. It was happening again, that incident on the fancy restaurant, when he was reminding me that he would pay my bill. I instinctively blushed. Uuuuugh, why couldn't I stop blushing?

Then I heard someone whistled, Matsumoto-san…I snapped my head to her and glare daggers. I hoped the daggers hit her! She put her hands up defensively with a stupid grin. "Abarai-kun." I heard someone called my name. Unohana-taicho.

"So, are you feeling better now, Abarai-kun? Any pain on your body at all? Internal pain, perhaps?" her questions were detailed, but nothing I couldn't handle. I raised my hand to my chin, a thinking gesture, then smiled and said," Yes, no, and no." then I felt it… It was like déjà vu. But I couldn't remember where I had seen that gesture and that answer; it just seemed so…_familiar._ I felt like I miss something or someone… Now I felt I miss that someone very much, I wanted to meet him… Wait, how did I know it was a 'him'? No matter…

"So, Unohana-san, when will Abarai-kun released?" asked Ukitake taicho, speaking for the first time since I woke up. "He could leave today if he wants, right, Abarai-kun?" said Unohana-taicho, smiling at me. I smiled back nervously and nod.

"So, Abarai-kun, what made you collapse?" asked Kyoraku-taicho with this kinda face… I couldn't really describe his face; he just seemed so… goofy… No offense…

"Well, I don't know either… I just… when we walked that day, suddenly my chest felt so hurt…Then I screamed, and then I fainted…" I explained quickly, bowing my head a little. The people around me were silent as well.

"Ne, Renji, Hitsugaya taicho said he would visit later you know. And do, do you know it's already summer vacation?" Matsumoto-san said, I thought she was trying to break the silence… I nodded to her. She nodded back, then silence once again.

"MATSUMOTOOOOOO!" I heard someone screaming Matsumoto-san's name. Must be Hitsugya-taicho. "Why! Why even though it's vacation, you still prank on me!" he yelled and then kicked the door to this room open. He walked in and… he breaks into sweats… "Taichoooo! You look cute like that!" Matsumoto-san squealed, while Hitsugaya taicho blushed. I held back a smile when I saw his appearance.

Hitsugaya taicho was wearing pink man yukata with orange blossoms embroidery and on top of that, he had a baby blue haori. He literally looked so cute and like a cute doll. Well, where did that come from?

It continued like this until the time I went back to Kuchiki taicho's mansion.

**End of Renji's POV**

_Somewhere unknown…_

"So, how is it?' asked a mysterious male figure to his partner.

"It went well. He doesn't remember me, so neither he, you. And don't worry, he hasn't awaken yet, soon though. Well, we must get ready, don't wanna be late, right"

"Yeah… Oh, I missed him soo much… My perfect-""Our you idiot!""Sorry..."

"...Hime-chan…" They both said together, thinking of a certain red head that would soon remember them both again.

Ohhh, hope it was cool… I love the part when Renji blushed and when Rangiku teased and pranked on Toushiro! He is just so cute!

And as i have said earlier, Renji won't remember the event in his dream, so HA! I'm a genius and... Right, I'm making this story, so i guess i know best huh... I'm no genius after all? *sob*

Well anyway, don't have much to say here, that's the end of chapter four! Hope ya like it!

REVIEW PLEEAAASE!


	5. Chapter 5: Strange Feelings

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I was so busy, even thought it's my school break…Just wanna say a BIG THANKS for Black Cat Angel for being a loyal reader! Hope others would start reading this story soon…I wonder if it's that bad…

A/N: Renji was living with Byakuya because when he became Byakuya's fukutaicho, Byakuya wanted to control Renji's behavior, because of his looks and all… and what was the best choice but letting him stay in his mansion? That's all… I gotta check the whole things up if I wanna explain the confusing parts to you, or you can pick up those things yourself, and tell 'em to me, I will explain them in my A/N.

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love).

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 5: Strange Feelings

"Now, Abarai-kun, you must remember to rest properly and eat nutritious food if you want to be always healthy. And please be careful on your way back, Kuchiki taicho, please take care of him, Abarai-kun is a little stubborn when it comes to food. "Said Unohana Retsu in front of her division barracks gate, sending Renji and Byakuya off. The others had already went back after Retsu told them to, because she thought Renji needed some time with his taicho, but found out that they didn't really talk about anything or nothing at all, because when she got back to Renji's room, she found Byakuya on a chair next to a sleeping Renji. But she guessed that's good enough.

"Ah, Unohana taicho, don't say that! Well, anyway, thank you, taicho… You've been a great help and thank you for all this time you have taking care of me. I appreciate it!" said Renji, grateful for Retsu's caring nature…kinda. "Yes, thank you for taking care of him. And yes, I will make sure he eats properly. He does very stubborn when it comes to food." said Byakuya impassively, smirking a bit, without no one noticing. Renji heard this then he protested," Taicho! Not you too!" it was almost like a whine. Retsu smiled, amused by Renji's behavior. _I wonder what the change is… Maybe the attitude has gone soft and kind? _She thought. Byakuya smirked too, obviously amused, but kept it hidden. Renji just being Renji, confused with all the smirking and smiling.

"Well then, bye Unohana taicho! Have a great summer!"

"Hn."

"Yes, thank you Abarai-kun. You too and Kuchiki taicho have a great summer!"

After that, Renji and Byakuya thanked Retsu onemore time and be on their way back home.

It was very awkward for some time, for Renji anyway, so Renji began with one of the topic he wanted to ask," So, taicho… Matsumoto-san mentioned earlier that you did my and your paperwork… Well, the question is actually, why would we have any paperwork if it was already vacation?"

Byakuya didn't say anything for a while then he said," The soutaicho said that even if this is a vacation, we would still have some work, even just a little… Our paperwork was about the construction of some part of Seireitei that had destroyed from the last engagements of Aizen Sousuke's betrayal and my fight with Kurosaki Ichigo. I just have to sign the papers, because the soutaicho had already looked at them, and he wanted you and me to sign them because he had a lot of works to do. But you were in a comatose state back then, I just have to do them all myself." He explained in details.

"I see… "Renji nodded, and then it returned to the awkward silence.

Renji looked up, wondering since when did he become shorter than his taicho. _The last time I checked, I was slightly taller than him… Or maybe it was just my hallucination… _he wondered. It had been almost a week… He missed almost a week of the vacation, just laying on a small nursery bed, doing nothing and in a coma. Well, it wasn't like the vacation almost over, hell, it took three freaking month for a vacation like this! But what bothered him was that just because he had a heard attack, he was sent to the 4th squad barracks and almost died? And on top of that, he was there for almost a week? What was happening to him…?

Speaking of coma, he had yet to ask his taicho about the staying he did everyday there…

"A-ano, taicho…"

"Hm? What is it Renji? Are you not feeling well?"

"N-no! Not that! W-well, I just want to ask, uhh.. I-is it true?"

"True what?" Byakuya asked, confused with Renji's tricky words.

"That you… were staying everyday at the 4th division barracks? In the room I was staying, exactly?" asked Renji, blushing a little.

He heard no answer, so he looked up again. He gasped a little and wide eyed. His taicho was blushing faintly, nearing normal, but because Renji was close to him, he could see the blush.

Byakuya regained back his composure then he said," Yes, I actually was there, staying in your room. But that was because I thought you would wake up soon, so you could do your share of the paperworks, but alas, you were awaken when I was already finished with all of them."

"I… I'm sorry, taicho… I've caused so much trouble for you, and being a burden for everyone… I wish I could be stronger and more competent, not like this, useless and—""Renji." Byakuya said, interrupting Renji's emo moment. Renji looked up, surprised at the difference in their height again, looking confused. "You know that every one of my subordinates is _not_ someone low, even the lowest rank. They have their pride and intelligence. And YOU as my fukutaicho, my second in command, have more pride than any one of them, so do not condescend yourself, because a half of my pride is you." Byakuya said while holding Renji's chin with his thumb and index finger, caressing the chin with his thumb softly. Renji blushed at the action with wide eyes, surprised at the confession. _Half of his pride…?_ He thought.

Byakuya, after realizing his action, retracted his hand and began walking again, leaving Renji behind. _What is wrong with me? Why I keep doing strange things to him…? _Byakuya wondered, remembering the time when he was almost kissed Renji in front of Juushiro and Shunsui. Byakuya blushed faintly at the thought, before realizing he WAS blushing because of the thought of KISSING Renji… _Think of the soutaichi in a furisode, think of the soutaicho in a furisode, think of the soutaicho in—_*gulp* Byakuya swallow back his vomit. Yikes. It was working though; thinking of the soutaicho wearing a furisode made him loss his thought about kissing Renji, FOR awhile, then it came back again. He sighed and noticed Renji wasn't on his side. He looked back, seeing Renji a couple of feet behind him, blushing slightly when he saw his taicho looking at him.

"What makes you so far behind, Renji? Come ahead." Byakuya said after he regained back his stoic mask. Renji looked nervous and blushed again before running to his taicho. "H-hai, taicho!"

Byakuya and Renji finally arrived at their house. Byakuya letting Renji to came in first and he after.

Renji was putting his sandals down when he felt the sudden weight on his back. He fell forward to the upper floor in front of him. His eyes widen for a second and then he shut them tightly, readying himself for the impact to come. But nothing came.

Renji felt his waist being held by to strong hands that pulled him up. He slowly opened his eyes, knowing exactly who his savior was. He saw a strong pale arms circling his waist tightly, afraid that Renji will fall again if he didn't. Renji attempted to pull out of the strong grip of his taicho, but the said man won't let go. "T-taicho… You can let go now, I-I won't fall agai—"

"Renji." he heard his taicho whispered his name in such loving and caring… tone? He felt like he wanted to cry. _Why I always blush? WHY! I'm just like a little girl falling in love for the first time at the first sight! Like I've been falling in love… Maybe Rukia, no… She's like a little sister that I don't have… But there is no way it would be…him… NOOOOOO! Don't think about that self! I AM NORMAAAAL! _

Renji hadn't realized his taicho was still holding him until he was being held to his taicho's chest. Renji gasped at the sudden movement.

"T-taicho…" he whined, seemed like his body loving the soft and caring contact with his taicho.

Byakuya inhaled Renji's hair. Strawberry and lily. He caressed Renji's hair, trailing his hand down to his cheek, caressing it softly. It was so soft like silk, just like his hair, as if he was trailing his hand on a water surface. They both kept in that position for who knew long. Surprisingly, there was not a single servant there. Or maybe there were a few, but just didn't make themselves known, well, Byakuya didn't care either way. Some minutes passed, he kept caressing Renji's cheek.

…

Suddenly, Byakuya's eyes widen. He looked down to see Renji was till in his embrace. _How long I…?_

Byakuya also saw Renji's hands were on his chest, from thelast attempt to pull himself from Byakuya. Byakuya looked at Renji's face. He was sleeping, fortunately. It would be very embarrassing if Renji was awake.

Byakuya, seeing Renji was still asleep and didn't want to interrupt to the much needed rest, carried Renji bridal style through the mansion. He stopped at Renji's room, sliding the door with his foot, and stepped in.

The room was not exactly dirty, no, no, it was clean and tidy. There was no trash in sight. There were just a few papers laying on the tatami*, and the futon was still folded. This was going to be hard, Byakuya decided. Of course it was, because he was still carrying Renji, while on the other side, the futon wasn't ready to serve its purpose yet.

Thankfully, a servant passed them, ignoring her confused look, he ordered her to roll open the futon, and told her to leave. Byakuya went inside the room, closing the door with his foot again. He placed Renji on the futon, after he pulled Renji's hair band and white headband, carefully to not waking him. He sighed after he was done with his task, and sit on seiza**, watching the sleeping figure of his fukutaicho.

While watching Renji sleep, Byakuya noticed some changes in Renji's body. He was definitely shorter than Byakuya now, while that was odd. Renji was always taller than him, even just a few centimeters. And he noticed also that Renji's feature was softer than before, made him look so… effeminate; his cheekbones were high, his eyelashes were longer and curved, his hair was longer and smoother, and his lips was so… kissable. Byakuya blushed at the thought, again. Why was he thinking of kissing those lips, lately, he wondered. Byakuya continued his observation of Renji's changes again. Renji's body was slightly curved, almost like a woman's body. He was slimmer and… The point was, Renji had become more beautiful and more feminine.

Byakuya's mind started to wonder about what if Renji was a woman. He must be very beautiful, then. _Why am I having these thoughts? Kami, what is happening to me? What is this feeling, when I'm near him, lately?_

_Am I falling in love...? No way... _

D-done… DOOOOONNNNNEEEEEE! YEAH BABY!

… … …

Don't worry about that, it happens everyday, it's normal. Anyway, chapter five: FINISHED! Yeah! Hope you like it, and even understand it! Review please! I want your opinion!

*Tatami is a traditional Japanese mat that used as flooring material, made from rice straw.

**Seiza is a style of sitting, when you fold your legs under your thighs while resting your…buttocks on your heels

REVIEWREVIEWREVIEW! I'm actually not THAT addicted… But I just want your comment! Please, review, I want more people to read it and review it, even thought it's bad!


	6. Chapter 6:Déjà vu's and Mind Puzzle

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: AHHHHH! I'm soooo sorry for the feel-like-forever-update! But I guess the long chapter worth it… Maybe… Please forgive me~ *effective puppy eyes*

Well, the reason for the long update is because I was too lazy to even start the new chapter, because it was so damn long, even the plot is long! So please please please please REVIEW it! I worked so hard for it! And I know some of you have read it and love it! Don't you lie! I just checked my email and there were so many mails from FFn that said this author does this and this author does that to my story! So review it please! I am just frustrated, because there aren't so many reviews for my story… Well, I can't force you; it's yours to decide… I'm just grateful that my story is in someone favorite story list… I'm NOT being pessimistic!

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love), fluffy!

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Many Déjà vu's and the Beginning of the Mind Puzzle

While Byakuya was holding Renji, many different feelings rushed to his heart. He was definitely blushing, yes, and his heart was pounding rapidly, and his whole body felt as if it was melting by the surprisingly warm body heat of his taicho. Renji didn't dare to look up; he couldn't let his taicho saw his face in this kind of position, no, not at all, definitely no.

Renji had tried to pushed his taicho away, really, he did the best he can, but Byakuya was just stubborn and won't let go. Or was it because he wanted to hold Renji? Really…? Renji shook the thought out of his mind. He was blushing so hard, you could hardly tell the difference between his hair and his face. _Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I feel like I'm getting Hanatarou Syndrome* _(A/N: Because, Hanatarou always flustered, even if someone just questioning him.)

_Somewhere else…_

"Ah-chooo!" Yamada Hanatarou 7th seat from the 4th division sneezed loudly, rubbing his nose after.

"Ahh, someone must be talking about me…" he whined** (A/N: In Japan, most people believe that when they sneeze, that means someone is talking about them.).

Renji felt his hair being touched, completely aware who did this to him, all which made him just feel more embarrassed than he already was. Why was his taicho doing such things to him, anyway? Such… loving and… caring things? He wondered what was gotten inside his taicho that made him love to cuddle and nuzzle Renji. Renji stopped dead at his thought. Cuddle and… nuzzle? Cuddle… and nuzzle? Renji kept repeating those words until he understood what they meant. He felt like meat; his legs were all wobbly and shaky, his hands went limb, and his face felt like melting.

Renji still felt Byakuya's hand on his hair, going in such relaxing rhythm. He felt his eyes closing and then opening again, closing, opening again... Just when he was about to close his eyes for real, the hand on his hair trailed its way down to Renji's temple and then rested on his cheek. It started to caressing his cheek as well, and the other hand that rested on Renji's back to support him stand, making its way to Renji's hair and caressed it like what it did with Renji's cheek, but still keeping the elbow on Renji's back. Renji felt those gestures were so relaxing and comforting, all the more that made him sleepy. He didn't want to sleep, no, it would be rude when someone tried to give their affection to you, you just go ahead and sleep, so he tried to opened his eyes longer, hoping Byakuya would stopped his actions, or he would sleep anytime soon.

That he did.

Renji soon felt his eyes became heavier and heavier, sleep was taking its toll on his mind. He couldn't think clearly, muttering inaudible something, and closed his eyes, smiling in his peaceful sleep.

Or so he thought.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

_Renji was dreaming again. He saw nothing but darkness. Felt like déjà vu, he said in mind. He looked around, trying in vain to find any source of light. _

_He wondered when he had this kind of dream again. He tried to find any memory of it but he failed. Renji sighed, no matter how hard it is he tried, he couldn't see any light, even just a tiny dot. He was kind of familiar with the thought of tiny spot of light, as if, he knew that there was indeed a spot of light, it had to be. He seemed so sure of that, but he couldn't quiet place where and when he saw it, and walked to it. Most likely dream. But if it was, it had got to be an important dream, he thought. But why he forgot about it? It should be like… a nightmare right? Because from his experience, a nightmare was very hard to forget… But he wasn't sure either, if it was just a dream or a nightmare…_

_He sighed again. He heard something, but he wasn't so sure. The sound was close, but he didn't know where it was coming from. It was neither from his right nor his left, above him nor under him. It was like… it came from every direction. The sound was getting closer, Renji was whimpering, it was so scary, like the sound of hollow, and it was so dark. What if…_

_Renji felt like screaming. Since when did he become such coward and pessimist? He hated himself for his own weakness. He even can felt something wet trailing down his cheeks. His tears… He was crying, just because of scary sound and darkness now? How weak could he be! He knew too, that something was seriously happening to him, a very big change. First, it was the tugging feeling, second, it was his physic, and third, it was his emotionally compromised mind. And now, what would be the fourth, he wondered. _

_Renji was so lost in his mind, he couldn't hear the sound was getting closer and closer. He did, however, when someone whispered something to him._

"_Hime…"_

_Renji's eyes widen. He gasped and then blinked, and the next thing he knew was… _

_White. It was everywhere. It felt like déjà vu too, but something was different, he decided. He felt like…_

"_Whoooaaa!" _

_He felt like the white around him was moving! It was moving so fast, he… No. It was him! He was moving so fast, but he couldn't felt his feet move… He looked down, and still, his feet were in their place. And then suddenly…_

_He abruptly stopped. He almost fell, because of the speed he was having, and then he just stopped, without slowing down first. Well, almost, didn't mean he did. _

_Because someone was catching him right on time. He didn't realize he was closing his eyes so tight until he opened them. It felt painful… He blinked them several times until he got used to it and… he looked up._

_He almost expectantly thought he would come face to face with some light silhouette, which was one of the déjà vu's he got before. He wondered how many he will had. Anyway, he expected that, but he was completely, utterly, totally, WRONG. He actually could see the body, not some silhouette person. _

_This man—obviously—was indeed very tall. He even surpassed his taicho's height. Now he remembered back the thing. He was shorter than Kuchiki Byakuya taicho! He was taller than him a couple oh weeks ago, but now, he was shorter, definitely shorter than his taicho, which made this guy a giant! He felt the muscles on the man's chest moving and a chuckle could be heard. Renji blushed and buried his face on the man's chest. Wrong move. The man enclosed his strong arms around Renji, while Renji was still hiding his blush, seemingly very fond of the man. _

"_Hime-chan, you are so cute when you blush…" Renji heard the man whispered right beside his ear. He shivered at the contact and buried himself deeper on the man's chest. He heard him chuckled again. _

"_Even cuter when you buried your face on my chest." Renji's eyes widen, still keeping the huge and bright red blush on his face, he began pulling himself away, by putting his hands at the man's rock hard chest. His action seemed to be futile, so he just did it half-heartedly, just to make the man think that Renji was trying… _

_Renji felt his chin being held. He looked up, and gasped at what he found. _

_For the first time he saw the man face, he was paralyzed by his looks. The man was absolutely handsome; chiseled jaw, smooth skin, red lips, tan, blood red hair, and the most beautiful scarlet eyes he had ever seen. The man was like an angel._

"_What is it, hime? Are you alright?" questioned the man, looking ever so slightly concerned with the crooked smirk. Renji seemed fond of the nickname. Hime. Princess…_

_But he was a man, for kami's sake!_

"_U-umm… Wh-who are you…?" Renji asked, unsurely. He was feeling kinda uncomfortable with the man holding up his chin, and especially his face was WAY too close for comfort. Renji wanted to pull back, because he didn't want the man to see his miserable attempt at keeping down the urge to blush, but failed, as he had expected. He felt like disappearing too, because the embarrassment was unbearable. _

_The utterly gorgeous man was very amused; he had a tiny smirk that looked like it will burst into laughter anytime soon. The man must be thinking how idiot he was now, Renji thought._

"_Ah, of course… You just look so cute like your real self that I thought you are blushing because you are too shy, just like usual… How foolish of me…" _

_Renji blinked. Twice. Thrice. Wha-? This man knew him, Renji decided. But, how could he never know him…? And he seemed very fond of him too…Anyway, that problem would be for later, right now, the main priority was to know the man's identity._

"_So… Who ARE you?" Renji asked once more, more confident now. _

_The man blinked and smiled warmly, as if he was urging Renji to blush again, which he did. And then he answered Renji, for real this time. _

"_Well, my name is Haruka. Who I REALLY am, is for later…" Said—now that he we know his name—Haruka, still smiling, even wider now, that Renji noticed. _

"_Wh-who you… really are…?" Renji asked confused with the game of word Haruka played. _

"_I told you. It was for later, Hime-chan. After all, it was none of any importance, right? I will do it for you anyway, even if you won't notice it…"_

"_Do…it? D-do what…" Renji asked again, wearily. This Haruka was very suspicious; the way he acted, his smirks, his words… Even his clothes! What kind of clothes was that…? _

_For the first time, Renji took a look at Haruka's clothes, and it was so… alien. Maybe he was an alien? Renji thought ridiculously. Of course not! Why am I acting like an idiot now…? He asked himself, and sighed. _

_Haruka was wearing no shirt. His whole abdomen was covered in some kind of tattoos, like Renji's but, they were more… tribal… The tattoos were like ancient Egyptians writing, circling Haruka's lower chest that ended on his back with two strange creatures facing each other. Other pair of tattoos was on his lower abdomen, starting from his hips and trailing both sides of his waist and ended near his navel, circling it with thin lines of invisible-with-bare-eyes mantra. And to add more spice in it, the tattoos were dark red with a little touch of dark green in some lines. _

_Haruka was wearing no pants too. He was only wearing dark green fabric that folded to his waist and only covering a half of his thigh. The fabric was fastened by a thin red obi and some red fabrics on each sides of the obi, adding more tribal touch on him. And he was accessorized with some kind of shawl that magically circled his shoulders, without even touching him, and rested over his forearms. His red hair was blazing like fire, but shone brightly, like blood on the moonlight*** (A/N: I kinda take those things from other anime, but with some of my touch too)._

"_Hime-chan? Are you sure you're alright?" asked Haruka, snapping Renji from his thought and making him blushed for the umpteenth time that day. _

"_U-uhh… Ye-yeah, su-sure…" stuttered Renji. He was so nervous being with this Haruka guy. Sure he seemed familiar and fond of him, and nice too, even though he was such a tease, but Renji was just embarrassed being with him, he didn't know why, he was like… shy to be with Haruka. But he still felt kind of comfortable too, being so close to him. _

"_Ah, I see… It's my clothing, isn't it? I know it's kinda strange to you, too tribal, was it? Well, it is the way I was made, so, what can I do, right? It was kinda not my place to decide. But you probably don't understand what I'm talking about, huh? At least not yet…" Haruka blabbered, almost to himself actually, making Renji even more and more confused. Renji looked at him—looked up actually—with wide innocent eyes that filled with confusion and disbelief. Of course. When he was _made?_ What was he, a croissant? Maybe he was an alien after all… But if he was, shouldn't he have some kind of... well, you know, three eyes, big head, a phaser? Maybe he wasn't an alien, just some kind of weird and strange person that taught to be a weird inhabitant… maybe…_

"_Anyway, Hime-chan… I am not the problem right now. The real problem is going to be within yourself. And it will start… now." Renji snapped back to reality-which was not real reality-and faced Haruka. _

"_What starts now?" asked Renji, dumbfounded. Haruka just smiled, and he began to disappear-déjà vu again-in to the white. _

"_H-Haruka! What do you mean the problem is gonna be within me? And it will start now? Haruka!" Renji called desperately, wanting more explanation before the 'problem' started. And what did he mean by 'the problem is going to be within you'? Was he the problem then? Renji was… a problem? Renji asked himself. He looked at Haruka, just to see nothing. He wanted to asked, really? He was a problem? But he told himself,"Nah, I'm sure he didn't mean it that way…" He was reassuring himself. It felt like he wanted to cry when he thought Haruka said that Renji was a problem. He was such a cry baby._

_Well, he was gonna cry, when the whites around him began spiraling, along with the black, and let the black dominated it, Renji was back in the darkness. _

"_Renji." Renji heard someone called his name. Haruka? No. It wasn't Haruka; the voice was different. It was deeper than him. It was—_

"_Renji." –Kuchiki… Taicho…?_

_No way. There was just no way that his taicho was in his dream! Wait… This was a dream? This was a dream! (For the first time in a while realizing this was a dream) _

"_Renji!" He heard his taicho's voice getting louder. And before he could even blink, the darkness around him blurred and replaced by colors. _

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The red hair was groaning. The images around him were making him dizzy. He slowly got up, groaning again in the process. He blinked his eyes a couple of times until he got used to his new surrounding. He heard a deep husky voice called his name again.

"Renji."

"H-huh…?... Ta-tai…cho…?" The red hair was making sure, if the man beside him was his taicho or someone else.

"U-unh… Where am… I…?" Asked the red hair to his taicho, after he heard a 'hn'; a trademark sound only his taicho could didw perfectly and flawlessly.

"Renji, you are in your room. You were fast asleep when you were… in my arms. So I took you back to your room for a much needed sleep."

"Ah, I… see…" Renji nodded.

But unfortunately for him, he blushed again when realization came around. His taicho said he took Renji back to his room, so, because he was asleep, and his taicho didn't wake him up, so… His taicho must be… carrying him… No! Maybe he was only supporting him by his shoulder and they both walked to his room, maybe he just didn't notice. But whatever it was that Renji thinking then, Byakuya hid a sigh in relief, for Renji didn't ask out loud how the hell Byakuya took him to his room.

_******Byakkun*******_

To tell the truth, I was surprised how light my Re—fukutaicho was when I was carrying him back to his room. But what surprised me more was that he blushed and mumbled something in his sleep. I knew that he was sleeping, but how could he still manage to be so cu—unusual even in his sleep.

I watched him sleep, yes, that, I couldn't deny. I knew it was as if I was a stalker or a… _freak_, like that Kurosaki boy always said. But I couldn't help but to be allured by Renji's innocent face. Yes, I just said that Renji had an innocent face. He hadn't but he had now. A lot had change in my Re—_fukutaicho_'s whole body. He was getting even more feminine in his sleep. He blushed every now and then, until he finally opened his droopy eyes.

He was trying to get up with a groan; I assumed he is in pain. So, I helped him up. He called my name once that I answer with my usual 'hn' and he asked me where he was. I explained to him what happened, but for no good reason, he blushed. It took a while for me to realize why he blushed like that. But fortunately, he didn't question me about it.

"Renji, it is almost night, would you like a supper?" I asked him, because I knew he just have his lunch at 3 PM and he needs to eat as much nutritious foods as possible. But of course I made my tone as commanding as possible; to made sure he will eat his selected food. Renji blushed—again—and nodded a yes to me.

I got up, and walked out from his room, calling a maid that coincidentally passes Renji's room, and told her to bring Renji's supper as I told her. I walked back to the room, to saw Renji was facing me directly in the eyes. I thought he didn't do it on purpose, because he then blushed brightly and turned his head to the other side. I smirked faintly and sit next to his bed, once again.

The same maid slid the door to Renji's room quietly, but I still could hear it, so I turn my body to her and got up, once more. I took the tray of food a little rudely from her and told her to leave. She stuttered her excuse and got out hastily, closing the door.

I was sure Renji saw the food in the tray, and I tried my best to held back the urge to chuckle, and I did.

"Here is your supper, _Renji._ Eat up." I told him with a rare teasing smirk. Renji's face turned into purple with a forced smile that looks impossibly hilarious. It might be a hell of a day for me.

But it sure was a hell of a night.

Akh! I just made Byakuya said the word 'hell'! How bad is that! Hahahahahaha! I'm SO evil. Not really, I think Mayuri is the most evil person in the world! Even though he is incredibly awesome too!

Anyway, nothing much just please review! Or I'll make a fic about a seme Hanatarou! Well, not such a bad idea, but THAT'S not the issue!

Just REVIEW!


	7. Chapter 7: Puzzle and Little Note

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: First of all…Yaay, I've got more than one review for a new chapter! And they're all great too! Thanks to:

**Airenya**: Thanks for the critics and support. As you know—if you ever read my profile—I am not a native speaker too, so I kinda confused with the grammar myself! But I promise I'll study more English, so you can enjoy my story even more! And you're right, I should put the notes at the end of the chapter, I really regret that myself too, but well, I noticed them a little bit too late… And besides, I don't think I will be using Japanese words too much… And for the 'Renji living with Byakuya thing', you can see the A/N in chapter 5! Hope you understand, because I kinda confused with it…jk … well, maybe a little…

**Black Cat Angel**: Yeah, I know! But all in good time, my dear…^-^

**nlsdn5**: Don't worry; the 'Hime' title won't go to waste.

**narutofreak10**: Patience is virtue… Who am I kidding? I can't wait for the next one either!

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love), fluffy!

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 7: The Puzzle and a Little Note

Unbelievable! To thought that his taicho could be that evil to him! He even thought that his cheeks were bleeding because of so many blushes there that cease to exist and deep blushes too! Aaahh, his stomach was aching so much; it didn't used to be feed such horrible and evil food. They were like soo many fruits and veggies! And there was a broccoli soup too! There wasn't even a single sushi or sashimi while they were good too for his health; after all, they were fish that full of protein and minerals! He didn't even understand what he was talking about! But those 26 minutes of his life were the worst and the most sensual! Renji blushed at the sensual part and cover his head with a pillow. He didn't want to remember it ever again, but for some odd reason, he couldn't help but keep repeating the memory of it, like a broken CD.

FLASHBACK

"_Renji, if you won't eat the food, then I've got no choice but force you…" _

"_B-But taicho! I hate fruits and vegetables! Especially vegetables! And you know that, right!" The red hair whined like a puppy, a cute one, protesting and all the while defending himself. _

"_It is for your own good." Byakuya said stoically, while inside he was holding back himself to not jump at the cute red head. He was confused of these urges he had been feeling since the time when Renji and him had lunch together—in addition of Juushiro and Shunsui. Since then, he had the urges to kiss him, hold him and other aggressive things, even _take _him. _

_Well, maybe the red hair had change from the last time; he was very beautiful now, but Byakuya knew he has had this feeling toward the red hair ever since before he change. _

_Byakuya shook all the thoughts above from his head, feeding his stubborn, troublesome, and _cute _fukutaicho was the main priority right now. _

"_It won't be for my own good if I just end up throwing up all the food!" Renji whined again. But even if he was being so cute like that, Byakuya won't back down, even when his self defense was crumbling down by now. He put on his stoic mask once again._

"_Then you leave me with no choice…"_

"_B-but ta—muph!" Renji said, but being cut off by a spoonful of broccoli soup with broccoli and carrot chunks. After Byakuya did that, he immediately enclosed Renji's mouth with his hand, so he won't throw the food out. Renji, whose mouth was sealed by his taicho's hand, had no choice but swallow the nasty liquid thingy. He shuddered at the taste and almost gagged if not for his taicho's hand that was on his mouth. _

_Renji's eyes widen in realization. His taicho's HAND was on HIS mouth, oh so softly and gently holding it with a sense of sensuality. He blushed really hard that he swore his taicho could feel the heat on his hand and because of that, he blushed even harder—if possible. _

_Byakuya saw it and smirked without Renji noticing. His fukutaicho was so shy now, not like the old times. He didn't really hate it, no, he _loved _it. He loved the fact that HE was the one that made him blushed, not some woman that accidentally revealed…parts of her body. _

"_It wasn't so bad, now, right, Renji?" Byakuya teasingly asked. Renji, who just regained back his normal colored skin, blushed once again. _

_Byakuya took back the spoon to the soup bowl and take a generous—large—amount of soup and feed it to Renji with his new found method—sealing Renji's mouth with his hand, sensually so he could see Renji blushed harder than normal. It went like that for the next fifteen minutes and Renji felt like as if his whole face had exploded like a giant volcano._

_The—nasty—broccoli soup bowl had emptied and transferred to Renji's rumbling—nastily—stomach and now it was time for the dessert; fruits. Not just any fruits, they were the only fruits in the world that Renji hated! Melon, kiwi, papaya, and _lemon _chunks*. Just seeing the fruit chunks made Renji felt like vomiting the broccoli soup he just ate anytime soon. Why his taicho was so sadistic? Unohana taicho just said 'nutritious food', NOT just fruits and veggies! Meats were nutritious too, right? Of course they were! Anyone knew that too… Well, maybe balanced assortment of greens and meats were the correct one, but still…!_

_Even when Renji was debating in his mind, Byakuya already had a spoonful of fruit chunks ready in his hand, ready to shoved it in forcefully inside Renji's mouth when he open it, even just slightly. When he saw the chance, he shot the spoon to Renji's mouth gently but with speed, in record time. Renji's eyes widen and almost choked but thanks to his taicho's hand on his mouth, the nasty fruits stayed. Of course, stayed never meant swallowed, right…? _

_Renji 'Mmh'd, with wide, glassy eyes, looking at his taicho tearfully. Byakuya was of course keeping his stoic mask, but inside he was screaming and trembling, even his hand—that wasn't on Renji's mouth—tremble slightly. He wanted to jump to the red head, but that would just make him terrified and traumatized. So, instead of imagining himself on _top _of Renji—that felt too alluring to be true—he imagined—once again—the soutaicho in a kimono, not just any kimono, in a geisha costume with the make up, and picturing him in many different situations; playing a lute with fluttering long lashes, traditional dancing with fan, doing sadou**, half covering his face with a fan and fluttering his lashes, and the last, running teasingly with a furisode and chuckling while covering his mouth in an elegant manner, as if someone was running after him, trying to catch him._

_His eyes were almost widen, his stomach was churning in the nastiest way—thank goodness Renji didn't hear it-, and he felt as if his organs were turned around by unknown hands. NEVER… imagined those kind of images again, the nastiest of the nasty, never, or he would die sooner than an ant. _

_He felt something moved under his hand—the one that was on Renji's mouth—and realize that Renji still had the fruits inside his mouth, hadn't swallow them. So he thought of something, something effective and efficient, and smirked when he found one. _

_Without any warning, he slip his thumb inside of Renji's mouth, pushing his tongue in such way that would make the fruits digested by Renji's mouth, whether he wanted it or not. Renji's eyes widen even more and a gasp was heard, before he closed them tightly with a faint blush on his cheeks. _

_Renji felt something wet began to formed on his eyes, but he still didn't opened them, too embarrassed in such position, to look at his taicho. But then he felt a finger—thumb—wiped them away gently, and he felt something touching his eyes gently, but still didn't dare to look._

_Byakuya had the urge to wipe those tears away, after he saw them, and he did. He raised his other hand, and wiped the tears on Renji's closed eyes with his thumb, gently. And he, suddenly, without his own control, kissed Renji's eyelids lovingly. At the contact, he began craving for more, but he restrained himself to go any further. He didn't want to harm Renji in any way. _

_So, after that, he kept using his method for making Renji swallow the fruits, until Renji was almost blue. He chuckled a little at that. And when he was about to given Renji another spoonful, Renji's hands stopped his arm for going any further. _

"_You wanted me to do it mouth to mouth then, Renji?" He asked with a wicked small smile. Renji paled and released his hands from his taicho's. So Byakuya fed him like that until the fruit plate was empty. And because he couldn't stay another moment—due to his longing for Renji—he immediately stood up and bid Renji good night. And Renji was left dumbfounded, and a bashful face. _

END OF FLASHBACK

Renji blushed again at the memory. He closed his eyes as tightly as possible until he felt them aching, he thought a little pain could helped him forget the memory—too naïve. He then tried to just… let them be. It looked like he was giving up—he was-, but he tried to reassure himself that it would calmed down. It turned out to be even worse.

He didn't realized how many hours he had waste on this until he felt himself feeling worn out. He was slowly drifting to sleep, until he finally closed his eyes. But he didn't notice someone was watching from a small open crack on the door.

Byakuya was smiling softly when he saw his fukutaicho finally asleep. He was already standing there for a few minutes, watching Renji squirming and blushing until he was asleep. He knew he had done too much to the now bashful red head, but he didn't know why, he loved seeing the red head shinigami's reactions to all his doings. He didn't understand what had happened to him, he felt like… he was attracted—literally—to the red hair. Maybe it had something to do with the drastic change of the red hair bodily appearance? He hoped so, because if he attracted to him without any explainable reason, it would confirmed the thought in his head. That he was… Never mind. He didn't want to think about it. After he made sure Renji was indeed asleep, he went back to his own room, ready to welcome the sleep.

He hoped it was a good dreamless sleep, because the last time he imagined Yamamoto Genryuusai in a furisode***, he had a nightmare of that; he was having the soutaicho on his bed in furisode, smiling in such… sensual way to him—or so he thought the soutaicho was doing. He didn't know why, but in his dream, he was walking to the soutaicho, feeling himself smiling as well, and sat on the bed, next to Genryuusai. He felt his dream self leaning to the soutaicho and he—... … …

He ran immediately to his private bathroom, thanking whoever it was above the sky for making the hallway empty. He slid the door open and immediately shunpo'ed to the sink—it was a large room—and unexpectedly… he threw out the last bit of his dinner. He grimaced at the sour taste of his dinner on his mouth, and cleansed them with water. He splashed some water to his face as well. He sighed for the who-knows-how-many-times that day and leaned to the tiled wall of the bathroom. He closed his eyes for a while. He also did this when he woke up from his nightmare, a lot more than this one. What could possibly happen this night, that he had imagined something worse than the last one? Maybe he would vomit on his bed and fainted, OR caught a heart attack. Well, that was still possible, that's why, tonight, he hoped he won't have any dream, or _nightmare _in particular.

Byakuya sighed again for the last time, and went back to his room. He just hoped that none of his servant heard all the ruckus in the bathroom he just made, and he hoped if the didn't, they too didn't hear him sighing at all—for the guy that he was, he was rarely known as a man who sighed frequently. He decided that was not really important, and lied down on his futon, closing his eyes. In a matter of minutes, he was already asleep in a deep slumber, due to exhaustion. Everyone was exhausted too, but not quiet. There was this certain red head, which had gotten too deep inside his dream.

_*****Dream*****_

_Ahh, he was dreaming again. How could he know that? Simple. Because he knew that there was no way in Seireitei, there was a place like this. This was too out of character, some could say. Well, he had gotten used to this, he guessed, for he didn't felt the fear in him anymore. A little, maybe._

_This place, one could say, was enormous, extraordinary. A very majestic work of art. The red hair, Renji, was standing just right in the middle of a humongous path. It was made of silver, he thought, or white gold. He was struck in awe, just seeing the path that was made from those possible quiet expensive metals. Both edges of the path were covered with flowers. Not just any flowers, they were all lilies, white lilies. So beautiful, he thought. He looked back; just to saw the endless path and lots of white lilies. The lilies were not just covered the edges, they covered the whole rest of the place but the path itself. _

_But of course, every path must have a way to another place. So he walked down the glimmering path, feeling no exhaustion at all, even after such a very long walk. But it was worth it. Because the next thing he saw was an even more majestic double gate. They were so much huger than the 1__st__ squad meeting gate or even the Seireitei gate itself! _

_The double gate was white with golden lining. It was very beautiful with two beautiful creatures at both sides of the gate, facing each other. They had wings too. They were like… what did the humans called them? Oh, angels! But these two seemed to be more beautiful than angels, he thought. They were not exactly the same. But, Renji seemed to be familiar with the other one on the left. He was… Haruka! Why would Haruka be one of the models the artist was taking? Well, because, the painting was the very resemblance of him, so he thought there must be an artist that was painting it, no matter how many years that would took him to painted on such huge surfaces. Anyway, that was not important right now. _

_The other one, beside Haruka, seemed familiar too, but he couldn't grasp it. He—Renji was so sure it was a he—was very… good looking too, just like Haruka, and he seemed to be more…friendly than him. He didn't know why, but just seeing those two—even just the paintings—made him fee comfortable and warm. _

_But of course, there might be just a purpose on this dream. He found nothing to make him move on in this dream, so he thought of something to refresh his memories. Haruka… _

…

_Oh!_

_Haruka said to him that there would be a problem—more likely trouble—to come. And it would be with him… Hmm, maybe it was this dream, then? It was like… a puzzle, that needed to be solved? Well, let's try that one, he thought, smiling in victory. _

_But how the heck am I gonna open the freakingly huge gate? It was too big to be true and there was no handle or something—duh—on the surface! Wait…! Maybe, there is some kind of… trick behind it… Hm? What's that…? Renji thought, he saw a, well, some kind of vase stand, right next to the left side of the double gate. I didn't see that before…_

_Renji walked to it, seeing a piece of paper on it. The paper was half folded, so he could see a little of the writing on the other side of the paper. Renji took the paper slowly and cautiously, hoping it wasn't a trap or something, which, luckily, he was correct. Renji sighed in relief and opened the folded paper. _

"_The two creatures on the heavenly garden,_

_Soaring in the sky, no fear in sight,_

_Open the gates of the heaven,_

_To finally see the endless labyrinth"_

_The creatures of heavenly garden… Renji thought of the note, averted his eyes from it, and looked at the paintings on it. Two creatures… Must be them both, he guessed. And then… Oh, soaring in the sky… Well, they were on the sky, by the looks of it… The gates of… heaven. Well, it must be this double gate… And on the other side of it, is… and endless labyrinth! Too easy… _

_It's NOT helping at all! Oh, look, there's a note under it! Let's see…_

"_Sorry, Hime-chan, I made those up! I always want to make riddles like that—which I know it was easy to solve! Well, anyway, the truth is… You just have to find a toggle, somewhere near the gigantic gates! Well, good luck!" And a smiley face… _

_That stupid idiot Haruka… Renji growled. He sighed and began to look for the toggle, if it was for the gates here, it must be big enough to…notice… It was there the entire time! The vase stand was the toggle! That was why there was a strange half sphere under it with a long hole to fit the vase-stand-like-toggle! That tricky-wicked idiot… Renji held the toggle with his hands and gripped them tightly, pulling them. But it was so hard to move! He pulled them harder and harder, until he heard a soft 'click'. He pulled away from the toggle, and looked back to the gates. No change whatsoever…_

_*Grrrrrrrrrrk* _

_Renji gasped, as the gates began to separate themselves from each other. What a magnificent sight to behold! Both gates were slowly but surely moving and made a way for Renji. They weren't moving to full swing, but the small crack for them was more than enough for Renji. Renji could see little from the crack, because it was a little dark there. Hope it's not really dark… Renji began to walked slowly to the big crack, when suddenly, darkness enveloped him, and he was back to reality... _

*****End of Dream*****

That was a really… well, odd dream… But somehow, he couldn't wait for more of them, because he was sure the puzzle hadn't finished yet… He smiled to himself.

****SomewherefarfromByakkun'smansion****

"Yamamoto soutaicho! I have an emergency report, sir!" Said a fellow 1st division shinigami, bowing to Yamamoto Genryuusai, right after he went to his office—his works were still undone.

"Speak yourself, boy." Genryuusai said calmly from his seat.

"There has been a report about strange activity in the real world, sir. The hollow level is still increasing and some of the shinigami that has come to investigate said that they spot five to eight menos. A little more than three of them had died, some were injured, and the rest were having trouble to deal with them, sir!" The shinigami explained the report on a summarized manner.

Genryuusai seemed to be deep in thought, until he said," Send Madarame Ikkaku 3rd seat and Ayasegawa Yumichika 5th seat to the real world, and told them to destroy as much of the hollows as possible."

"Yes, sir!" The shinigami bowed once again and shunpo'ed out of the room.

Genryuusai watched the hollow space of the room for a few seconds.

"Sasakibe fukutaicho." He called. Sasakibe Choujiro acknowledge the commanding call with a loud "Hai, Soutaicho-dono!" and appeared before him.

"Call the other captains for an emergency meeting immediately."

"As you wish, sir!" Choujiro shunpo'ed out of the room, sending hell butterflies to each captains places, wherever they were. While in his office, Genryuusai put his hands together under his chin, closing his eyes for quiet some time.

He snapped his eyes open.

"I see you have made your first move, Aizen Sousuke…"

I'm so sorry for the long update! But I have my excuse! My big bro who is in college came home—he has a rented house somewhere close to his university—and took over the computer for the entire two days, so I update behind the schedule… Sorry… Well, I hope it's good though!

* I'm not sure what kind of fruits that are very healthy, so I just put some random fruits together.

** Sadou is a Japanese formal style tea ceremony. I don't know much myself; I know that word from some of the manga I read. Well, what I know is, it was a very formal ceremony with formal kimono, or in this case, formal woman kimono ^-^

*** I'm pretty sure you will know what a furisode is when you look at Google. It's a woman kimono that has really long sleeves. What I'm trying to say here is that Byakuya had imagine the soutaichou in a furisode before the story even started, so there you go!

Lastly, like you all know, REVIEW!


	8. Chapter 8: Emergency

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: Heya fellas! Finally, chapter eight! Yeah! It's a lil' bit suckish, but it will survive. Oh, and thanks for all reviewers! You guys are nice people! Finally some progress! And one more thing, PLEASE READ THE A/N AT THE END OF THE PAGE, IT'S IMPORTANT! *cough* Please just read it, and please understaaaand TT TT

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love), fluffs!

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Emergency

When he woke up, dread feeling came straight through him.

After he woke up from his dream, Renji had, once again, gone to sleep. And, he noticed it was still too early— perhaps in between 1 to 2 AM in the morning.

Renji woke up early—too early—that morning; with his eyes opened wide as if he just had a nightmare over his first dream that night, his body was in cold sweat, and his heart beating rapidly.

_What was that…? Aizen… is… already…!_ He shook his head. No way. Maybe that was just another one of his dream, but… two dreams at the same night was a rare case. And besides, the image of the shinigami messenger and the soutaicho was way too blurry to be real. He just saw images, like photo shots, and almost coherent words. But what caught his attention was the part when the soutaicho said, _"I see you have made your first move, Aizen Sousuke…"_

Renji wondered what kind of first move, but because he wasn't sure if it was a dream or… well, other thing, he decided to let it be. After all, if something was bound to happen, one of his subordinates would come and tell him, after all, he was the fukutaicho.

Renji stood up from his bed with his long morning hair all tangled together, his white sleeping kimono right sleeve fell a bit, revealing the creamy smooth skin underneath. He walked out of his room, feeling dizzy. He walked down the hall way, when he saw a servant boy eyeing him, blushing. Renji shot him a confused gaze and the servant stuttered," I-I… Umm… Yo-your... sh-shoul-der…" Renji blinked and looked down. A small blush keeping his cheeks warm and he grabbed the kimono's sleeve and pulled it into place. He muttered down his thanks while still blushing faintly, while leaving the servant boy no room to talk anymore. He was literally dashed away from the area.

He was dashing his way to the Kuchiki house's hot spring. Yep, a _personal_ hot spring of the Kuchiki family. Some servants walked passed by him was gaping at how he look, forgetting their greetings. Well, how couldn't they? Renji was like, looking the exact opposite of his old self, one hundred and eight degrees change! He, who had always had wild and uncontrollable aura around him, now was looking like an angel. Small hands, red silky hair barely covering his butt, long lashes, one slender leg that could be seen behind the slight opening on his white kimono, and the utterly beautiful effeminate face. How was that possible, they thought, while blushing slightly. But of course Renji ignored them, he must cool his head off first.

Renji arrived at the hot spring, but before he just went in the hot water, he walked to the sink near it. He splashed his face with cold water. He said he must cool his head first, right? He did it twice, thrice… and so on, until he felt the sleep slowly seeping away. He sighed, and took a rag from the cabinet and dried his face off. He threw the rag away to the dirty clothes hand made wooden hamper. His taicho usually didn't use the hot spring. "It is a waste of time to do that. I am using it only when I feel like relaxing and when I have got no business to do. But when in working days, I prefer the fast and simple shower." He said that, exactly… many years ago. But, oh well, none of his business.

Renji slid his kimono off slowly and carefully, with, somehow, graceful movement. His long finger tugged the collar of the kimono, revealing his left shoulder, and slid it off until his left arm was free from the clothing. The other one just needed a slight pull before it also fell. He undid his white silk obi and let the rest of the garment that covered his legs fell off. Renji stepped away from the clothing that was pooling on his feed and put it away into the hamper. Renji went to the cabinet once again and took a white towel. He wrapped the towel around his waist and took another small rag.

Renji walked his way to the spring and lightly dipped the tip of his toes to the water and slowly, he went in there completely. He sighed in content at the warmth all over his body. He dipped the small rag in the water and put it on his forehead. He smiled slightly and began scrubbing his body.

After all the scrubbing, he stilled for a moment and leaned back to a big rock. He thought over things unimportant while his hands were playing with the water surface, making it wavy.

After a couple of minutes, he stood up from the spring carefully, not wanting to slip on the slightly slippery rocks on the bottom of the spring. He cleansed himself afterward, and put on a white robe, when he realized something.

"Darn, I forgot to bring my clothes…" He muttered, slapping his temple.

After he changed, Renji went out to the garden, right in front of the Kuchiki mansion. The garden was beautiful. It was full of trees; Sakura trees, plum trees, and many others. The flooring was full of healthy short green grass. There was a koi fish pond too, that has a small bridge crossing over it. The pond was really pretty; there was so many colorful koi fish in there. There was a flower bed too. All in all, it was a piece of art.

Renji walked around the garden, feeling the soft breeze against his face. The weather was not too hot, seeing it was summer after all. It felt nice for Renji, because he was wearing slightly thin clothes. He was wearing a baby blue yukata with light pink sakura design. Over it was a thin white haori also with the light pink sakura design. It was light on his skin, which had change from tan to pale-ish peach tone.

Renji stopped near the small flower bed and he crouched, smiling at the beautiful flowers. There were many flowers there; roses of many colors, daisies, orchids, chrysanthemum, and lilies. Renji's eyes stopped dead at the lilies. He spotted a lily, it was like the other lilies, but… something was strange about this one. He felt the infamous tugging sensation on his chest again, and grasp his chest with his hand, his other hand, was reaching for the lily. He slowly touched the stem, and as he expected, it sent electricity-kind-of-thing to his chest. He braced himself and clutched the stem and pulled it carefully as to not bug the other flowers. He took the lily near his face and examined it. There was nothing wrong with it, he thought. He stood up, and walked to his room when he noticed something strange.

He hadn't seen his taicho all morning.

Renji saw a maid walked his way, and clasped her shoulder. She jumped and he immediately pulled his hand away, blushing wildly. She stuttered something not coherent and stilled when Renji coughed a bit.

"Uhh, well… I just wanna ask…" Renji started, still blushing a bit, the maid found that really cute and decided to take pictures of it later when he wasn't aware of her. She nodded to him, keeping a faint blush on her face. "Have you seen the… taicho, all morning?" he finally said. She sighed in relief, she thought he wanted to do something for him, she was still so sleepy, and hadn't take a shower since she woke up. Damn her friends to not play fair…

"Byakuya-sama said that he was going on an emergency captain meeting, Renji-san, and he said that he will come back shortly after. But it has been hours since then and he hasn't come back. Maybe it was something very important." She said. Renji blinked. He stuttered his thank you to her and walked pass her quickly, to his room, thinking over what had just happen.

_Taicho said there will be a captain meeting once in a while, so no need to worry over things. But… I have a feeling this is not an ordinary meeting… Something is wrong in this picture…_ Renji shook his head._ Don't worry too much about so many things, Renji. I'm sure he will be alright, _Renji decided. He looked at the lily on his hand and caressed the white petals.

Byakuya just had his morning breakfast, when a hell butterfly flew its way to him. He raised his brow. How unusual. The black butterfly flew still on the air near him.

_Kuchiki Byakuya, captain of the 6__th__ division. Please go immediately to the 1__st__ division meeting room. There is an emergency captain meeting held shortly. Repeat; please go to the 1__st__ division meeting room. There is an emergency captain meeting held shortly. _

_Emergency…?_ Byakuya stood up, went to his room, changed his clothes to his captain attire, leave a message to the servants, and shunpo'ed to the 1st division.

_I wonder what this is all about…_ He thought as he jumped on the roofs in Seireitei.

Well? How was it? Good, or bad? BTW, sorry it's short.

IMPORTANT A/N: Sorry guys! But I think I'mma take a break for a while… I wanna find some inspiration. This one I have now is already expired, so I will find some more to make my inspiration flow like water fall! Sorry again. Maybe just a week or two. Approximately a month… But please be patient. Promise that more chapters will be ready for you to read after that!

Anyway, please review this one! Think of it as a… well, as the beginning of the new story arc!

See you in a while!


	9. Chapter 9: To the Real World

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: Hey guys, I'm back! Sorry it took more than a month—maybe—to finish this chappie! But it's longer! Well, you know, I was kinda busy lately and… well…

Byakuya: And that was another way to say 'I'm being lazy'

Lil : *Throw hands in the air* Yeah, he's right… You're always right about everything…

Byakuya: Hm… I just want you to know… *Pulls Lil's collar* if you dare to make anyone to touch my Renji…

Lili : Well, certainly the Byakuya over here is far more honest to his feelings than the Byakuya on my fic… *Smirked*

Byakuya: *Growls* Just do as I say!

Lil : You're not the boss of me.

Byakuya: Then I'll tell the boss of you, which is your mother, that you've been watching M rated yaoi fiction…

Lil : A-all right! Geez… *Runs away*

Renji : Eh? Do I miss something…?

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love), fluffy!

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashback_

Enjoy!

Chapter 9: To the Real World

Renji had gone to his room in a rush, holding a fragile white flower close to his chest. He instinctively turned right at a corner, and then turned left, and left, right, right, right, left, right, a 'good morning', right, and finally slid the door to his room open. He stood there for a moment, not bothering to close the door behind him. He was panting and finally let his left hand moved to his back and closed the door with a soft 'thud'. Renji fell down to his knees. He closed his eyes, holding the white lily tight to his chest, and found the electricity that ran through his body calming down his nerves.

Renji didn't even know why he was feeling so panicked, so... vulnerable. There wasn't any threat knocking his door and there wasn't anything that triggered this feeling in any way… He just didn't understand what had been going through him. But he just knew that if anything, it happened to be connected to his taicho's whole emergency meeting… He was afraid that the dream-wanna-be he saw was true…

Renji shook his head hard that it would rip off his neck if he continued it like this. No no no nononononononono! He shouldn't be so worried over such thing! So what if Aizen had made his first move! He wasn't scared, he wasn't scared at all! All he did was just feeling scared for all the people who abandoned their fear with feral masks on their faces. He wasn't scared at all… He was being scared for people who would sacrifice their lives for Seireitei, for the souls in Soul Society, for the Real World. He was being scared for his taicho, because he knew it too well, Byakuya always put aside anything but his pride in line when he was fighting. He would put aside his fear; he would put aside anything and protect his pride until he died. Renji was just simply feeling Byakuya's fear for him, because he would discard it when the war with Aizen started. He wasn't scared at all... It wasn't his fear, he merely picked up the fear on the ground… Those people, his taicho…

'_I would even die to protect my pride and honor.'_

So he said, but Renji couldn't just let that happened… Suddenly, so many things surrounded him. His past memories when he saw death of many shinigamis. His eyes widen in horror, when he saw his other self in that memory seemed to just shrug it off like it was nothing. Renji couldn't possibly believe it, so many deaths around him, and all he did was just _investigating the crime scene…_ He looked like as if it was just a _duty_ that needed to be finished. He didn't even bother to spare a mourning gaze at the deaths, or comforted a fellow shinigami watched his sibling and friends death before his very own eyes, he even yelled at him to 'stop lazing around and get back to work!'… Renji felt so… filthy. He couldn't believe he was being so cruel, and here he thought he was protecting himself, defending Soul Society and the Real World from Aizen…

Renji thought the war was just way too stupid to be true, now that he looked back past his memory…

Renji crawled to his—fortunately—unfolded futon and sat on it. Feeling more comfortable, he shook all the thoughts about war or Aizen or deaths off and observed the lily at his hand. It seemed to be just a normal flower, like the rest of them. But, Renji was sure that it had something very… unique, which differ it from the other lilies. Nothing from the outside, of course, but something from… the inside. It sounded weird, even for Renji, but he knew he was right. There was definitely something strange about that beautiful white flower.

Renji kept looking at the flower with wonder, until he felt it… Something was definitely wrong with him today also. He didn't know what, but something was really _really _wrong with him…

Renji sighed. He got up, deciding to be out of his room before he became an emo that always be on his own and rely on no one until it became too much and he decided to kill himself. Renji walked to the near by short-legged table—also known as his 'small office' as there were piles of finished paperwork that he forgot to gave to Byakuya—and put the white flower there softly. He stared at it for some times while caressing the petals. So many things had happened and this little flower was a part of it…

Renji walked up to his door, passing his full-length mirror that stood just beside his closet. Renji gave it no heed as he walked away, but then he stopped dead at his track.

Renji walked back to the mirror, slowly nearing himself to it, inspecting his body. Renji was surprised at how much change he had overnight. He was definitely shorter, not quite short, just short enough, like a little taller than Ise Nanao. He reached his face and he felt it so soft against the tip of his fingers. His hair was so much longer and softer than before, it was not like the wild wave of fire any more, more like red silk. And he found out that he didn't bother to tie up his hair in his usual high pony-tail, how strange… But Renji knew, he now liked it more this way. Renji also noticed that his body had became lithe and smaller, not brawny big and intimidating like he used to. Now Renji understood as to why did all the servants that passed him look at him like he had grown a tail and a pair of cat ears. But Renji also noticed that there was a major thing that had change on his body, not _in, _but on his body. Renji leaned in to his mirror closer; he could feel his breath on it. His brows furrowed, and he frowned as he thought over the thing that majorly changed him. His eyes? No, it seemed bigger, but he had noticed that. His nose? Nah, that thing had not really came to his mind went he thought something had changed. Well, maybe… his brows? No, they clearly hadn't change from their usual red.

Wait, what?

Red? No, his brows weren't red! Well, it were red, but he had covered them with…

Oh. My. Gosh…

A screamed was heard in the Kuchiki household that morning; the workers had stopped their chores and froze. The birds on the branches of many trees flew away from the surprise they heard and flew very far away from the mansion, as long as they won't hear the ear-splitting scream again.

Renji had screamed very hard until he was left panting, trying to get as much oxygen as possible from the earlier extreme scream he just did a while ago.

Renji couldn't simply believe it! His tattoo! It was gone! He was sure he still had them when he was on the spring, but just like that, it disappeared into the thin air. Renji tore open his yukata to see what he just expected, the tattoo he planted there was gone too. How could it be like that? Renji didn't really care about the tattoo, but he wanted to know what happened to his tattoos all over his body, though he admitted, they were really cool…

Renji sighed—again—and sat down in front of the mirror. He knew it. Something was happening to him… A big change. But what he didn't understand was…

Why.

Why him? Surely there were other—better—candidates. But of all those people, it must be him. It had always been him… Renji also noticed that his taicho had been acting differently too. Like, why he was so… gentle to him? So careful and… aggressive… Renji blushed hard at that, because of the memories of the 'aggressiveness' of his taicho for the last couple of days.

Renji breathed out deeply, deciding to NOT think about his taicho anymore, because he thought that it was making him feel like a blushing teenage girl falling in love for the first time. Besides, they were both males! Renji AND Byakuya just LOVE girls, for the King's sake! He couldn't just run around blushing because his taicho was being… a little too close for NOT comfort… Well, he gotta admit, he liked the way his taicho was holding him… But not that way! NONONONONO~! His taicho was just trying to make him comfortable! That was it! Right?

Right.

Renji got up and walked out of his room, some fresh air would do to clear his mind and calming down his rumbling heart.

O0o0O

"Is everyone here? Alright, let us begin!" said Yamamoto Genryuusai with his old but strong voice. Byakuya almost cringed, key word 'almost'. He couldn't believe that he had dreamed of the very manly not feminine at all soutaicho wearing all kind of kimono and posing different poses. Byakuya shuddered a little. He had vomited twice that morning, thank goodness, because when the first time he dreamed about that, he had thrown up more that five times.

It had calmed down a bit, mostly because he was dreaming of Renji last night. Don't be such a pervert, I know what you're thinking. It wasn't that way. He was dreaming Renji in the middle of a very beautiful flower field, sitting down all alone, he was surrounded by so many beautiful flowers and snow flakes here and there. Yes, it was snowing that time. Renji was smiling down at the flowers, picking up a white lily flower. He kissed the lily, before taking in the scent. The suddenly, he was looking straight to Byakuya's point of sight, smiling sweetly at him. Renji reached out his hand, as if wanting Byakuya to come to his side. He felt his sight getting nearer and nearer to him as the image change into his room. With the soutaicho. It was just brief, fortunately, because he woke up as soon he recognized the picture.

"May I have your attention?" The soutaicho called. All the captains looked at him right away. Byakuya snapped out of his thought and immediately copying the other captains. The soutaicho stilled for a moment and thumped his cane to the floor beside him and spoke with so much seriousness in his tone.

"Last night, one of the shinigamis that we sent to patrolling the Real World had come back and reported me something gravely important." Yamamoto went silent for a while, letting the captains to absorb the information he just gave. He then continued, "It appeared that Aizen had made a move for the said world. He had not just summoned a legion of hollows, he also sent menos. And this morning, one of the shinigami had reported again that the menos level had gone up to uncountable amount of them." The soutaicho said calmly as most of the captains gasped. Byakuya's eyes were almost widen at the surprising information he just received. He had noticed that the hollow level had increase for the past few days, but he never expected a large amount of menos had come to the Real World. He had to do something, because, it appeared that his little sibling, Kuchiki Rukia had also sent there, along with Kurosaki Ichigo and his other friends to help the other shinigamis. He looked to the soutaicho when he was about to speak again.

"I, after some consideration, have decided a back up plan." All the captains' eyes were on him, waiting.

"I have decided to send three captains to the Real World to help and aid the shinigamis."

"And who might they be, Yamamoto-sensei?" asked Juushiro, Shunsui nodded beside him. The other captains also gave the soutaicho some curious look. Yamamoto cleared his throat and announced," They will be… Soi Fon taicho from the 2nd division, Hitsugaya Toushiro from the 10th division, and Kuchiki Byakuya from the 6th division. I assumed the three of you would consider?"

Byakuya just 'hm'ed, but giving no sign of refusal, Soi Fon nodded her head along with Toushiro. The soutaicho, acknowledged the agreement from the trio of stoic captains, spoke again," Very well the, it has decided that Soi Fon taicho, Hitsugaya taicho, and Kuchiki taicho will cooperate and go to the Real World. You are to be at the senkaimon place tomorrow morning. You are also expected to bring your lieutenants and at least five subordinates for you. And Unohana taicho, I believe a few of your professionals could come too?"

Unohana Retsu smiled and nodded. "Of course, anything to help." She said. "Good, now it settled. I'm sorry for the discomfort in your vacation. But you could go now. Dismiss!" the soutaicho said, after that, he left the meeting room.

"Kuchiki taicho. May I have a word with you?" asked Retsu when she saw Byakuya walking down the street to go back to his mansion. Byakuya turned and bore his eyes on Retsu coldly. He was supposed to be back at his mansion, taking care of his Renji! And now the soutaicho ordered him to go to the human world and worse, he had to bring Renji who was still recovering and who was oh so ravishable? That was unacceptable! But even if he was to leave Renji at home, he still couldn't help but concerned. What if his servants had their way on him? To say the least, he was grateful that he could bring Renji with him. That way, he could watch over him wherever he went, whatever he did.

But now, when he was just about to flee to Renji's side, Unohana Retsu must stop him and have 'a word' with him. What was it that was more important than be by Renji's side anytime soon?

"What is it… I only have little time for chatter." Byakuya replied calmly, the opposite of his raging mind. Retsu but smile at Byakuya's reply. She knew what he was thinking, a little of most of it. She blinked when Byakuya turned again and start walking his way back. She immediately said," It's about Abarai fukutaicho." Byakuya suddenly stopped and walked to her quickly.

"Start talking." He commanded, earning a chuckle in return Byakuya's mouth twitched. What was so funny? She better start it quickly, or he swore he was going to tear her flesh apart. Since when did he become so impatient?

She knew it! He was so predictable. Byakuya liked Renji, no, he _loved_ Renji from the way he turned around after she said 'Renji'. But first thing first. She must warned him before it was too late.

"Kuchiki taicho, Renji was going with you tomorrow, right?" a nod. "He was still recovering, so please have your eye on him. He can be very reckless if he wants to. And don't let him do anything rash or a tough job, his body is still very weak."

"I assure you, Renji would be back save and sound."

"I understand. Just take care of him. It seems like his body is changing for some reason that I, myself, do not understand quite yet. Well, I just want to say that. And please take care of yourself too. It seems like I cannot go to bid your farewell tomorrow." Byakuya nodded his head slightly, and turned around once again, thinking that was a 'good bye' enough for him. Retsu smiled and said," Good bye, Kuchiki taicho. Please remember my word." And walked to wherever it was that she wanted to go.

Byakuya arrived at the front gate of his mansion and saw Renji was sitting under a cherry blossom tree. Byakuya walked closer to him, to see that his fukutaicho was asleep. He allowed the tiniest of smile grace his face and sat down beside his fukutaicho. Instinctively, he reached for Renji's soft cheek and caressed the smooth skin.

Byakuya observed the sleeping figure beside him. He had change again. His form was smaller than last night and his skin was paler too. His face was even more so feminine and his tattoo was gone.

Wait. His tattoo was gone?

Byakuya took a look at Renji's forehead. He was right, the tattoo was gone. Did he washed it off? No, Renji had said that it was permanent. But then how? Byakuya ushered his mind off the matter and started focusing on the more important thing. He shook Renji off his sleep then he heard a groan.

Renji was taking a nap under a tree, and as he expected, he wasn't haunted with any dream. Renji felt something soft and warm touching his cheek, but shook it off. He then felt his locks were pushed to the side. It must be the wind, he thought. It seemed like he was in a too comfortable position to even move. But when he felt himself shook, he grudgingly woke up with a groan.

Renji slowly opened his eyes to stare at a pair of deep charcoal eyes of his taicho. Renji immediately straightened up.

"T-taicho! Wha-…? I I'm sorry, I was asleep so I…" Renji stuttered, blushing very red. Byakuya almost smirk at the blush. _So cute…_ He thought before he even realized it. Renji looked at him again, with concern on his eyes.

"Taicho… I asked a maid. She said that this morning you when for an emergency meeting, and that you would come back in short. But when I asked her, it was already ten! And you hadn't come back… I was so worried…" Renji muttered, then trailed off at the end. Byakuya blinked and smile a genuine smile that, unfortunately, went unseen by Renji.

"It was longer than I had expected it to be…" Byakuya lied; actually, he went to the flower field in the forest where Renji had told him about. Even though he wanted to go to Renji's side as soon as possible, he was still curious about the flower that Renji was talking about. Sure, Renji must thought that he had forgotten about it, but he wasn't. So Byakuya went there and tried to find the lily. But he didn't find it at all. So after the failed attempt, Byakuya decided to rest there for awhile, that turned out to be two hours. The meeting was just a little more than twenty minutes.

Byakuya thought that it wasn't so important to tell Renji the truth. And mostly because he thought it was embarrassing.

Renji nodded. He knew his taicho wasn't telling him something, but after a couple of thought, he realized that it wasn't his business.

Byakuya watched as Renji stood up. He asked where he was going and Renji said that he was just going inside. Byakuya followed him.

"Renji."

"Yes, taicho…?" Renji turned around to face his taicho.

"I need to speak with you."

"Okay…?"

"Come." Byakuya said as he walked pass Renji, the red head following shortly.

Renji thought as to why couldn't his taicho speak to him in the hallway, instead, he was taking him to his room. It must be very important. So, Renji followed his taicho quietly. They both came to a stop in front of Byakuya's room.

Byakuya slid open his shoji door and stepped in, followed by Renji.

Byakuya told Renji to sit, as he sat in front of him.

"So, taicho… What is it that you wanna talk about?"

"First off, Renji I notice that your tattoo is missing…"

Renji's eyes widen at that and blush faintly.

"W-well, yeah… I don't know what happened either…"

Byakuya just watched him silently; making Renji let out the red blush even more. He almost smirked at that. He took mercy to the red head and stopped his staring.

"As I was saying… "He started. " The soutaicho had been informed that the hollow level increase. There are many menos lurking around too. He had chosen Soi Fon taicho, Hitsugaya taicho, and me to go to the human world to help aid the situation there."

Renji gasped. It was what it was, then… Aizen had really… made his move on Karakura Town. It was the truth… His dream. He couldn't believe it. What sort of thing had happened to him…?

Byakuya noticed the worry in Renji's eyes, left confused. Was he worried over Byakuya? Or was it something else? He was bound to find out the truth.

"His first move…" Byakuya heard Renji whispered. He raised one of his eye brows. Renji looked up to him and said frantically," A-Aizen first move! I dreamt of it last night… When, when the soutaicho said that Aizen had made his first move! This was it! Taicho… What… what is happening to me?" Renji sounded so desperate. Byakuya had an unbelievably huge urge to held and comfort him. Which he did, by the way, because the urge was too strong.

Renji's eyes widen in shock when he suddenly pulled to his taicho's broad chest. He felt a hand caressed his hair which was so comfortable. Another hand on his waist, holding him for dear life. Renji felt a deep blush creeping its way to his cheeks.

They stayed like that for another five minutes, until Renji pulled himself from his taicho.

They stilled for some moments until Byakuya broke the silence.

"The soutaicho also said that we acquired to bring our lieutenants and a couple of our subordinates, preferably seat officers."

"I see…"

"Wait, what? Y-you mean… I'm going with you…?"

"Yes. Tomorrow morning. I suppose a hell butterfly would come and warn us when we will be going tomorrow."

Renji was almost screaming in joy. HE must went there and see the truth anyway. This was a big opportunity for him. He nodded eagerly to Byakuya, who looked confused at Renji's eagerness, but waved it off.

O0o0O

The next morning, the hell butterfly came to the Kuchiki mansion, as Byakuya had assumed. Renji and Byakuya went to the senkaimon along with 6 shinigami officers, to saw the other two captains already there. Soi Fon was already with Omaeda and her five other subordinates. Toushiro was already with his subordinates too, however, his fukutaicho was not to be seen yet.

"Hitsugaya taicho! Where is Rangiku-san?" asked Renji. The people there suddenly gasped. How couldn't they, the last time they saw his was when he was still the loud-mouthed and wild red hair. But know, what they saw was a very beautiful man.

"Is that you… Abarai?" asked Toushiro.

"Of course! Who do you think I am?" answered Renji, offended by some meaning.

"But you looked different! Where is your tattoo?" argued Touahiro.

"W-well… That's not the point! I've got something akin to transformation, okay! I don't know what's happening nor I have control over it!"

Toushiro couldn't argue at that. How could he, when the red head was showing cute expressions though he was mad? Byakuya was just watching the scenarion before him with a hint of amusement, while Soi Fon with her crew were still gaping at Renji.

"So, Hitsugaya taicho, I was asking, where is Rangiku-san?"

"She was still in her office getting ready! That stupid lazy old woman! She was drinking sake last night even though she knew today is an important day!" Toushiro shouted angrily, directed to his lieutenant. Renji smiled knowingly and patted Toushiro's shoulder.

"I'm grieving for you…" Toushiro blushed at that, a reaction that was not Renji was planning to see, but he smiled anyway.

Byakuya growled quietly at the scene before him. Only he could receive Renji's smile!

…

What? Nononono… What was he thinking? It wasn't like Renji was his… partner… Why would he get so upset over such trivial matter?

After a while, Rangiku, along with three healers from the 4th division came into sight. Toushiro hit her head with the back of his hand which earned a puppy whine from her.

"Taicho~! Why did you do that?"

"Because you're being lazy you lazy-head!"

"But I came right in time ri~ght?"

"That doesn't count! After we get back, I will punish you with piles of paperwork that YOU need to DO seriously and ALONE!"

"Whaaaaaaaaat?"

Renji chuckled at the sight. Both Rangiku and Toushiro looked at him. Rangiku gasped, just like Toushiro when he first saw him and asked the same questions as him too.

After the crowd settled down, a 1st division shinigami instructed the party to go in the senkaimon, and told them that the soutaicho wished them luck.

This was their beginning. The beginning of a war, which unfortunately, couldn't be stopped by the red head alone… That would cause deaths… That would cause grieve… And Renji had wished…

If only someone would help him stop this madness…

**0**0**

Done! Wow, i guess Byakuya in this fic is a very denial character, huh? Well, he is in denial of his love for Renji!

Byakuya: You stupid imbecile! You said that you won't have anyone touching my Renji… But you did any way… Time for you punishment…*Pulls Senbonzakura*

Lil : I prefer the other kind of punishment, though… *backs away*

Renji : Taicho! Don't be so mean! After all, it was me who pat Hitsugaya taicho. Besides, what's wrong with a pat?

Byakuya: Everything. Very well, if I cannot harm this imbecile in anyway, I will confront this matter with Hitsugaya taicho.

Renji : But all he did was just blushing!

Byakuya: He blushed because the one who patted his head was you. I knew it all along. He had planned to take you away from me.

Renji : Really? Hitsugaya taicho would never do that! Would you, taicho?

Toushiro: Why you must connect all the problems to me!

Lil : What an eventful page… Well, at least I won't be punished for another chapter or so...!

Review!


	10. Chapter 10: Sparks between Two

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: Sorry I'm late! Believe it or not, I've finished it a few days ago, but got no chance to upload it. My bro came back home again and as usual, took over the computer… But it's here now!

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU, yaoi (boy x boy love), fluffiness!

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashback_

Enjoy!

Chapter 10: Sparks Fly between Two

After arriving at the Real World, the Soul Society team immediately went to the battle field on the sky. Indeed, there were many hollows and powerful menos here. The ones called arrancar. There were hundreds of Gillian—the lowest rank arrancar, some Adjuchas—the higher rank, and a few animal-like Vasto Lorde—the highest rank known by the Soul Society. The shinigami there were having trouble with the Adjuchas and Vasto Lorde primarily and a few new shinigami were having trouble with the Gillian and their cero*. The 4th squad members immediately shunpo'ed to the nearest wounded shinigami and started healing the wounds effectively.

The officers that the captains assigned for this were ordered to aid the rest of the battle wounded shinigami too and fight the hollows.

"We must go and help too." Toushiro merely said and unsheathed his zanpakutou. Seeing the act, Byakuya and Soi Fon unsheated the sword also, along with Renji who nodded his head.

"Sit upon the frozen heaven, Hyourinmaru!"

"Scatter, Senbonzakura."

"Sting all enemies to death, suzumebachi!"

"Howl, Zabimaru!"

The four shinigami commanded their zanpakutou to change to the shikai* mode, allowing greater critical hit on the enemies. Soi Fon sprang into action first, killing the smaller hollows very fast. Toushiro defeated the hollows by making hundreds of huge icebergs around their bodies; they cracked, and disappear within the tiny pieces of ice shards. Byakuya however, use his more effective senbonzakura to kill almost all the weaker hollows. The tiny cherry blossom-like blades cut through the hollows bodies in huge amount with just one swing of the hilt. Renji extended his Zabimaru that killed tens of Gillian.

Renji felt like his zabimaru's power's was being held back by something, because usually, zabimaru could cut off the hollows with no problems, but now, it seemed to be heavier than before and it didn't extended as much as it used to. Renji got rid of the thought, however, feeling that the situation he was in was much more dangerous than he would like it to be.

They finally got rid of the weaker hollows and began to focus on the arrancars.

They fight for what it seemed like hours, but the Gillian kept on coming, along with another wave of the weaker hollows.

"This battle has no end, isn't it!" Renji shouted. He was panting very heavily, he was sweating cold sweat and looked as pale as a ghost.

By then Byakuya remembered what Retsu had said. Renji shouldn't be doing this stuff! He should be just doing the less risky stuff. He was such an idiot! He didn't even tell Renji to not over-exert himself back in the mansion. Darn it…

"Renji…"

"Yes, taicho?" Panted Renji. He was on the edge of falling down the ground bellow if Byakuya didn't hold him in place.

"Don't push yourself too hard…" Byakuya said.

"It's alright taicho, I'm… fine…" he breathed.

Of course he was not fine. He was anything but fine! That stubborn cute innocent little… what? No! _Stop it, we are in the middle of a battle. Focus! _

"You're anything but fine, Renji. Go. Rest." Byakuya ordered. He didn't mean it to be that way, but he couldn't help it. He wasn't going to be all soft and kind to Renji where there were Soi Fon and Toushiro, along with the other shinigami right? That would be an utter embarrassment, though he didn't see any embarrassment from the thought of caring for Renji.

"I won't! I won't, alright! I want to help things here! You must understand taicho! People will start thinking that I'm a wimp if I just go down there and rest, while you all fighting to sweat and death!" Renji protested, all in while snapping Byakuya off his train of thought. Byakuya looked at Renji impassively and still insisted him to go and rest. Renji, once again, refused to cooperate.

"You can help aid the wounded shinigami down there. It's helping too. Renji, Unohana taicho said you must NOT fight or do anything that would reduce your reiatsu or making you tired. You're still weak, you must understand. If you keep on doing this, you will just be a burden to us. You never want to be a burden, yes?"

Renji went silent. His taicho was right. He was being stubborn again and made people around him burdened. Renji almost sobbed, but he kept it hidden, he didn't want to become a bigger burden to the others and his taicho. Especially his taicho.

"You're right, taicho… I… I'm sorry. I… will go down now… P-promise me you won't be hurt…!"

Byakuya smiled which made Renji blushed. Even on this kind of time… "I promise. Now go down there and help the 4th squad."

Renji nodded and went to the ground.

Renji made his way to the 4th squad team, all the while looking on the sky, seeing his taicho and the other captains fight again so many hollows, no one knew when they would give up. Renji had a concerned look on his face. Sure his taicho looked fine and dominating the battle area to himself, but seeing the number of those monsters…. made Renji worried over him too much. No, he must trust his taicho. He had promised to go back unhurt after all, and he knew his taicho was not one to break a promise like that.

Renji asked one of the 4th squad healer of what could he do to help. Renji began to help the wounded shinigami. He bandaged the injured arms, torsos, legs, covering infected wounds with disinfectant, and more. He became really busy that he started to let go of the battle above him. But he hoped that it would end soon.

Speaking of battle, where were Ichigo and his friends? Usually they always showed up right at the beginning of the battle, but Renji didn't see any orange hair at all.

After he thought of that, suddenly, the carrot top appeared on the sky, along with Rukia. Sado, Uryuu, and Orihime were on the ground, just in front of Renji.

"Inoue, help the aid team!" yelled Ichigo while unsheathing his Zangetsu, didn't notice Renji at all.

"Don't be such a noise, Kurosaki Ichigo."

"Why you…!"

"Alright, Kurosaki-kun!" yelled Orihime back, getting Ichigo's attention away from Byakuya and nodded.

"Okay! I will hel…" Orihime trailed off. She saw Renji when she turned around and jumped to him.

"Waaaa! You're so beautiful! What's your name, there?" she asked, grasping Renji's hands in hers. Her eyes widen in expectation and her nose flaring, eager like a dog.

Renji blinked and blushed, realizing that Orihime just mistaken him for someone else.

"Inoue! It's me, Renji! Abarai Renji!" Renji explained while frantically pointing his index finger at his chest. Orihime blinked at that and started giggling.

"W-why are you giggling like a mad doll?" Renji asked scared of the girl's giggle for some reason.

"B-because… Y-you said that… you, you're Abarai-kun!" Orihime said between giggles and pants.

"But I AM Renji! See, this is my zanpakutou! Zabimaru! Want me to show you?"

"S-sure, Abarai…kun!" Orihime laughed hard. Of course she didn't believe the beautiful lady was a brute like Renji! Well, sure they have the same red head, and the voice was slightly similar, but that couldn't be.

"Howl, Zabimaru!" Renji yelled. Zabimaru transformed into its shikai form, proving that he was indeed Renji. Orihime gasped at that. Renji sheathed back his sword, feeling a little tired over the demonstration.

"You really are Abarai-kun! But… You are so beautiful, what happen to you?" asked Orihime.

"I… I don't know… It's not on my control…" Renji sighed. He was being fully honest actually, he didn't know what was happening to him and why did he felt so weak and easily tired. He was bound to find out though; he couldn't just let it be without knowing what would happen to his body and himself.

Orihime looked at him strangely. Why would he be so sad? He looked so beautiful, but he disliked it. What a weird girl-wannabe guy. If it was her, she would be very happy and confident; she always wanted to have a good waist-long hair after all. Well, not like she wanted to be a man, but still.

"Okay, then… Uh, I'll help with the medic team, okay? You look tired, please just rest for a while. I'm sure Kurosaki-kun, Kuchiki-san, and the captains can win the battle up there." Orihime finally said.

On the other side, Uryuu and Sado were fighting the smaller hollow close to the 4th squad, guarding them.

"Darn, when will they give up!" shouted Uryuu, pissed at the fact that he was tired of shooting millions of arrows already. His hands began to cramp, and his arms were shaking because he had no time to rest them without being hit by a hollow.

Sado grunted beside him while blowing his El Directo to a straight line of hollow. He looked up and saw the same fate befell the ones up there.

Toushiro was panting, sweat trailing down his face. He had a grim look on his face when he rubbed the sweat off with his sleeve and jumped to the next round of battle. Byakuya was jumping from sides to sides gracefully, dodging the Adjuchas attacks. Though his face was stoic, there was a gleam of exhaustion on his eyes, and the fact that he had almost lost his balance twice confirmed the matter. Soi Fon was no better. The quick reflex that required for he suzumebachi was slowing down due to a slight cramp on her right arms which reflexes were overused. Sado turned his head to Ichigo. He was still fighting with full energy; swinging his zangetsu from a group of hollows to another with ease. He used his getsuga tenshou on a group of Gillian and two more on a dozens of Adjuchas. He too, however, had the slight tiredness on his face that had a permanent scowl on it. Rukia was the worst, thought she didn't look like she would faint; she was the one that sweated the most. Well, she wasn't like any others there. Like, she was the weakest among those up there, so her energy must be draining out of her body faster than the others.

Sado turned his gaze to the enemies on the ground again and began blowing and punching the hollows that made him left his nice bed in an early morning of summer. He _would_ be in peace this summer.

The battle went on until hours, when the hollows number began to subside and almost all the shinigami had been healed. Ichigo and Co. seemed to haven't notice Renji—except Orihime. But when the battle wore down and Ichigo, Rukia and the captains jumped back down, all the attention was on Renji that being held by his taicho. Apparently, he had fainted.

"Byakuya, who is she?" asked Ichigo who wiped the sweat on his forehead. The hollows had finally disappeared completely. A good sign, but not for long. They would be back in a few days, or even hours.

"She, as you would refer _him _to, is my fukutaicho, Kurosaki Ichigo." Byakuya said impassively. Ichigo twitched. After a few second of calming himself, he finally noticed that his friends were gaping, except for Orihime. He blinked. His brain began to process the explanation Byakuya just gave him and after a couple of moments, finally, it clicked, he guessed.

"What! You mean you replaced Renji? What kind of—Oomph! Ishida! Why did you do that for, you glasses boy!"

"It's you who are being stupid, Kurosaki! _She _is a _he_ that called Abarai Renji, you dumbass! Use your brain!"

"I already use it! And whaddya mean that this girl is… Renji?" Ichigo finally trailed off. His brain worked faster than ever and—"WHAAAAT! You mean this… this feminine… girl is… Renji?"

"Don't be so loud, Kurosaki Ichigo. Are you that fool, you took so long to process the fact that _she _is indeed _**Renji**_."

"'S not my fault he was too beautiful to be called a man!" Ichigo snapped without realizing what he said. There was silence for a while.

"K-kurosaki! I don't know you swing _that _way!" Uryuu exclaimed while pointed his index finger accusingly at Ichigo, face red with embarrassment. Orihime blushed faintly while shouting the same thing but in her own unique way. Sado was just Sado, eyes widen in surprise but did nothing to voiced out his shock. Byakuya was still in his stoic expression, while inside, he felt some kind of fury after he heard what Ichigo said.

"Ishida, you idiot! Of _course_ not! It's just a fact! You can kill me if you didn't think he was a girl at first too!"

"Well, I… did, but…" Uryuu stuttered.

"What? Can't answer it, can you, nerd boy!"

"What! You stupid brainless delinquent!"

"I'm not! At least not anymore, you glasses boy!"

"Enough!" Byakuya yelled.

…

All eyes were on him, but Byakuya didn't care. He stood up and carried Renji bridal style.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?"

"Anywhere, really. Just faraway from this messy battlefield." Byakuya replied.

"You can't just carry him around, you idiot!" Byakuya stopped at that. "At least let him rest in Urahara's!"

"Preferably." Byakuya agreed. He immediately shunpo'ed to the said place, leaving behind Ichigo and the others.

"That stupid prick!" Ichigo shouted and shunpo'ed as well, Rukia, Toushiro and Soi Fon.

"Ah, please wait for us!" Orihime cried and ran along with Uryuu and Sado who grunted.

"Ah, what a surprise! What brings you here in such a lovely day, Kuchiki taicho?" Kisuke smiled, his paper fan hid his grinning mouth. He looked down Byakuya's chest to see a very beautiful person that looked just like Renji.

"Oh, who is this lovely lady?" Kisuke walked closer to Byakuya, his eyes were on him, his chest, exactly, where a person sleeping peacefully there. Byakuya turned to the side, blocking Kisuke's view of the red hair in his arms.

"Ohh, quite possessive, there. Maybe your lover, Kuchiki taicho?" Kisuke smirked teasingly. Suddenly, Ichigo came out of nowhere and began shouting strings of curses.

"Watch your mouth, kurosaki Ichigo. It is not my fault you are so slow. Besides, what concern do you have over my subordinate? I am capable of taking care of him myself. I merely need a shelter for him to rest and recover."

"But Renji is my friend too! I have all rights to be concerned about him! I know that he just recovered from a coma too, all the more reason for me to be worrying over him! And look at him! H practically looks as vulnerable and frail as a flower! YOU need to be careful when you are taking care of him! Now, it's my turn, hand him over!" Ichigo ordered, reaching his hands for Byakuya to hand over Renji to him.

Byakuya, however, looked at him ridiculously.

"What, now you're acting deaf?"

"No, boy, I merely digesting what foolish demand you told me. Boy, you must know that Renji is my subordinate and I have taken him under my wings. I should be the one to take care of him and not you nor anyone else. Especially _not _you." Byakuya stated.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean!"

"It meant what it meant, foolish boy."

"What did you just—"

"Please stop it you two, don't want to wake the poor thing up, now do you?"

Two pairs of death glare were sent to the hat and clog figure that put his hands up defensively.

"Anyway, did you just say that the person is a 'he'? He is Abarai-kun?" Kisuke asked, slightly changing the subject.

"So what if he is?" Ichigo said, annoyed with both Kisuke and Byakuya. Especially the brunette. Renji was his friend too! And he sure did care about the red haired shinigami! Thinking of the thought that Renji was in Byakuya's arms right now pissed him off so much.

Suddenly Kisuke broke the thought. "Just asking, Kurosaki-san. Well, what are you waiting? Come in!"

"Put him there." Kisuke instructed, pointing his fan at a futon in one of the guest room. Byakuya walked in the room and put Renji gently there.

Kisuke left the room, saying that he would be in the 'meeting room' if Byakuya needed anything. Ichigo was still standing outside the door, scowling as always.

Byakuya sighed. Unconscious, but already messing with his mind. What a creature he was, the red hair. He was able to toy his heart, even that Kurosaki boy, he noticed. Kurosaki Ichigo was taking a liking to Renji, and he didn't like the idea one bit. Sure the boy looked capable of protecting Renji, and as he quote," I protect those who are important to me!" and Byakuya trusted those words to the very core. He knew Ichigo could protect Renji, but the very thought of getting Renji protected by another person but him concerned Byakuya. It was like as if he got himself a… rival. As ridiculous as it sounded, it was true. Ichigo was acting as his rival, and he sure would be a tough opponent to deal with.

Byakuya sighed again. It was starting to sound like a love triangle. But it was not 'love' to begin with. Right?

Right.

Byakuya wasn't even sure of himself anymore. He began to not trust his very words, coming from his mind. All just because of the now unconscious red hair.

Byakuya then realized that Ichigo was still there, standing. He decided that Renji would be out for a while, so he stood up and turned around. He saw Ichigo's scowling face directed to him and then shifted to Renji, and shifted back to him again.

"What do you want, boy?" Byakuya asked with his cold gaze on the orange top.

Ichigo 'che'ed and said," Nothing."

In the living room, where Kisuke and the other captains plus Rukia were sitting at, Orihime, Uryuu, and Sado, finally came.

"Where is Kurosaki?" Uryuu asked. This time, Toushiro was the one to looked up from his tea and said," In the left guest room with Kuchiki and Abarai. It's best for you to not go there right now."

"Yes, there is… a little conflict going on there." Kisuke added and then sipped his tea with a content sigh. The trio on that stood on the doorway blinked.

"Maybe just a peek." Orihime said. The other shrugged. The trio went to the said guest room quietly.

On a corner, they poked their head out of the wall on the opposite direction, their body completely hidden by the wall on the previous hallway before the corner's end.

What Toushiro and Kisuke said were true, they shouldn't be there. There was a conflict going on in the guest room.

There, the saw Ichigo and Byakuya, some kind of sparks were between the two.

The question was…

What happened between them?

0O0

Yay, done! And I'm so sorry; I'm not good with the fighting scene.

Byakuya: It doesn't matter to me. What matters most is… Why you make him my rival? Why you make a rival at all? Now the absoluteness for me to conquer Renji for myself ruined!

Lil : That's the whole point, Byakkun! Don't you know that every twist in a story make it better?

Byakuya: No, and I demand you to change it.

Lil : It had been uploaded; there is nothing you can do.

Byakuya: I can delete it.

Lil : Oh no you don't! If you dare, I'll make Kon your rival in the next chapter!

Byakuya: *Twitches* Sneaky little fool.

Ichigo : Meh! Like I wanna be your rival, stoic bastard!

Byakuya: Why you… Very well, I'll win this competition for sure, and gain back MY Renji.

Ichigo : Like hell I'll let you!

Lil : Well, folks, let's just let them be. It would turn up just some bruises.

Review!


	11. Chapter 11: More Important Matters

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: I'm sorry I'm late! School is driving me crazy! And please read the A/N at the end of the chapter…

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU, yaoi (boy x boy love), fluffiness!

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashback_

Enjoy!

Chapter 11: More Important Matters or were they

Ichigo stood in front room of Renji's room, with Byakuya facing him just beside the door. Their eyes met with piercing gazes, fighting for the dominance over each other; Byakuya with his stoic but hard stare and Ichigo with a huge scowl and gritted teeth, his fist clenching on his sides.

When Ichigo was about to yell at Byakuya, Orihime—who had sense troubles coming—broke their staring-to-death contest with a 'Kurosaki-kunnn!' and faced two glaring men on her way. She sweat dropped and backed away, hands up in defense.

"Inoue, Chad, Ishida! What the hell are you doing here?" Ichigo was first to gained back his normal scowl, followed suit by Byakuya who curtly nodded his 'whatever' and started walking to the living room, passing the trio.

"Oi, teme! Where do you think you're going, bastard!" Yelled Ichigo loudly, causing Orihime to covered her ears and Uryuu and Sado winced. Byakuya turned around and stared at Ichigo coldly.

"Kurosaki Ichigo. It is a must for you to be silent here, as _my _lieutenant is still recovering and resting in that room. If you want to 'pick a fight', as you call it, then would you be so considerate and do it outside? Or preferably… the training ground?" stated Byakuya, each word laced with venom, while putting on emphasis on the fact that Renji was his lieutenant, which pissed Ichigo off.

Stupid-evil-intentional-bastard…

"Fine! Let's go to the training ground and fight!"

"Kurosaki! What has gotten in to you, you stupid idiotic carrot top? Besides, what reason do you have to fight?" Uryuu yelled at Ichigo, pointing and accusing hand at him.

"Yes, you really have no reason to fight, Ichigo." Sado agreed, while grunting at the same time. No one knew how he could do that…

Ichigo blinked at them both and looked back at Byakuya, who stared at him too. He relaxed his muscles from the fighting stance he took and sighed loudly. "Fine… But no promises if the jerk decides to piss me off…" Ichigo said, rubbing the back of his head while glaring at Byakuya.

Byakuya 'hm'ed and turned to walked away, followed by a confused Orihime who said that she was thirsty and went to the living room. Sado and Uryuu decided to take a peek inside Renji's room before going as well, but strangely, Ichigo decided to stay.

In the living room, Byakuya noticed that Ichigo and two of his friends were absent and quickly realized that they were still outside of Renji's room. He had the urge to go to Renji's room, to see if everything was alright, but decided that it would be foolish of him to do that.

_Why do I have to worry over them for seeing an unconscious comrade? He isn't mine, after all… They could go and see him for all I care, it's not like I'm… concerned over it…_

Byakuya was deep in thought of the reasons he had for not concerning over the matter when he heard a screech coming from the hallway… the one which led him to Renji's room…

A screech… Renji's room… Renji… Screech… Renji's screech…

Byakuya immediately shot up from his seat and stomped his way to Renji's room. Kisuke, Orihime, and the others who were in the room shocked at the suddenness, leaving them frozen for a while…

"KYAAAAAA! Don't touch me, you perverted jerk!" Renji screamed, awake when he felt a hand on his hip, caressing him with the most sensual touch.

"Oi Renji! Shhhhhh! Stop it! Hey, I'm not a pervert okay! It's me, Ichigo!" Ichigo yelled at a still screaming Renji, attempting to assure him that he was okay, but got his face kicked by a very soft and small foot, but still hurt. He fell back with a loud 'thud'. By then, Renji ceased his screaming and put his hands away from his face which was a little red from the blush he kept on earlier.

Renji gasped. It was not any pervert. Oh no, it wasn't a pervert at all… It was Ichigo! Renji rushed to the now groaning Ichigo.

"Oh… Oh my gosh… Gosh, I'm so sorry, Ichigo! I… I thought you were a perverted… jerk… You touch my hip suddenly and all…" Renji apologized, his face red from embarrassment and anger… to himself. Oh, he was just stupid…

"It's alright, Ren… It's my fault, I was trying to cover you with a blanket, but accidentally… you know…" Ichigo said, unconsciously using Renji's nickname, that made Renji blushed.

Ichigo blinked at that and blushed as well when he realized what he just called Renji.

But while the two of them were busy blushing, Uryuu and Sado froze on their seat, watching the whole scene with wide eyes. Uryuu, who decided to unfreeze himself, hid a devious smirk and then yelled loudly," AWWW! HOW SWEET OF YOU, KUROSAKIII! OHHH, YOU ARE BLUSHING! HOW CUTE!"

Ichigo snapped up from his laying position, which startled Renji. Ichigo's eyes widen when Renji almost fell back, if not for a strong pale arm holding him up and pulled Renji closer to a broad chest.

Renji gasped, and looked up. Of course, it was none other that his taicho. He blushed when he felt Byakuya's other arm circled his waist firmly but gently.

Ichigo was surprised at how fast Byakuya was, even with shunpo… Ichigo was never really so fast. He blinked and watched as Uryuu paled. He almost made Renji fell… If it was not for Byakuya, Renji could have fallen to the hard metal block right behind him. What was it anyway?

"Ishida, you idiot! You almost made Renji fell! What if he went into coma again like last week? He could have die, you know!"

"Well yeah, but it was your fault to startle Abarai-kun and made him fall!"

"Don't cover up yourself with that kind of alibi, you jerk!"

"But I was just stating the fact, strawberry!"

"You…Glasses boy!"

"Delinquent!"

"Nerd!"

"Jerk!"

"Quincy!"

"Shinigami!"

"GRRRR!"

"GRRRR!"

"YAMEROOO!"

…

"What…" 

"Sado… kun?"

Wow, Sado was shouting out loud under a normal circumstance? That was… different…

After realizing what he just did, Sado stood up and walked out from the room quickly, what they all could see from his face was all but a big red blush creeping up to his ears. Ichigo almost snickered at that, along with Ishida who stifled his laughter with a mock cough.

Ichigo seemed to be remembering something and then he looked at Renji who was still in Byakuya's hold. He had something akin to jealousy to this, but didn't realize it himself. He even almost fought with Byakuya for Renji and he didn't realize it. He was one oblivious person.

"What are you staring at, substitute?" Byakuya questioned him coldly with his hands held Renji more firmly than ever.

Ichigo 'tsk'ed at that. _Lame… Who wants the red head anyway… holding him possessively like that… His blushing cute face… Not cute, you idiot! Urgh… damn hormones and pheromones…_

"What, I'm not allowed to use my eyes as I want now?" Ichigo snapped, a not-just-hint of annoyance in his not-gentle-voice.

"You are, but I have to say that you couldn't look at my fukutaicho with your dangerous gaze, for you have made him trembled in my arms." Byakuya stated the obvious. True to be told, when he looked at Renji, he saw Renji's brows lifted in shocked and his face widen slightly with horror, his form trembling faintly. But when he heard what Byakuya said about him, Renji blushed furiously and hid his face in one of Byakuya's arm.

That action had an instantaneous result. Byakuya was almost blushing but hid it well, as he stroked Renji's hair with his hand gently. Ichigo was shocked at that, and it turned into anger as he saw what Byakuya did. Renji himself blushed as he realized what he just did.

_Stupid-betraying-body! Don't blush! Don't bluuuushh!_

"Ano… Kuchiki taicho… Kurosaki-san… Are you alright?" came a voice from the doorway.

Ichigo looked behind him and saw Kisuke was standing there with his fan closed tight. He had a very goofy confused face. After it all clicked he grinned widely.

"Ah, I see… You two are fighting over Abarai-san's heart." Kisuke stated simply.

Ichigo blushed a deep red and shot up quickly. "No! I just… He just…! Damn it!" He ran out from the room. By then, Renji was peeking up from Byakuya's arm, to see what had happened. He blinked confusedly and looked up to his Taicho. Byakuya looked at him too and shrugged slightly.

Byakuya stood up, pulling Renji up with him, and held both of Renji's hands in one of his bigger ones. He walked out too, not bothering about Kisuke. Renji, who was forced to follow Byakuya smiled apologetically at Kisuke, made him blinked several times._ Is that charming person really Abarai-san? He looked… feminine… Not that I mind…_ Kisuke thought while keeping a grin behing his now spread open fan. _This is going to be very interesting indeed…_

O0O

Darn it, why it had to be hard for him? He just wanted to check the red head, to see if he was alright or if he needed anything. But it just HAD to turn out like this… Damn glasses boy for screwing things up, damn his sad excuse of a cursed hands, and damn himself for not having a high self-control… Damn… Renji for being so oblivious and innocent. Damn his brain for stating that Renji was cute and innocent. And damn it to hell, damn his mind for repeating what his brain just stated. Ugh, finally, damn Byakuya for being so possessive of the single _available_ red head.

Ichigo had thought of several hundreds reason to say the word 'damn' to himself, and every one of them were true. He didn't know what have happened to him, but he knew for sure it was involved with Renji. And Byakuya. Why it had to be Byakuya? Now he felt like they were rivals, over Renji.

"_You two are fighting over Abarai-san's heart." _ Damn Kisuke for knowing things he didn't. And no, he was so sure he didn't swing _that _way. At least, that was what he thought.

Well, his thought was interrupted by Byakuya.

Byakuya was, after leaving the room where Renji was recovering a while ago, thinking of drinking some tea in the living room—along with Renji of course—and almost half way there until he saw Ichigo was sitting outside all alone.

Strange, he thought.

He didn't care less, and began to move once again, until he felt Renji arms tugged their way out from Byakuya's loose grip. Byakuya saw Renji's eyes showing a hint of concern, after he freed himself from Byakuya, Renji went to sit beside Ichigo, his eyes were looking at Byakuya, silently asking if he wanted to join them.

Byakuya of course, didn't want to see Renji with Ichigo all alone, complied and sat next to Renji, his hands millimeters away from Renji's.

Ichigo noticed that Renji was sitting beside him, but almost growled when he sensed Byakuya was sitting next to Renji. He didn't know why, he couldn't stop it.

"Ichigo, what's up?" Renji asked cheerfully, reminding Ichigo of his old self, but the thought vanished as he saw the beautiful smile replacing the once goofy smile.

Ichigo smile a small smile and answered Renji with a "nothing" while putting his hands behind his head and lay down on the clean polished wooden floor. Renji blinked and made a move, leaning close to Ichigo.

"Nothing?" Renji repeated, his heat tilted to the side with confusion.

"Yeah…" Ichigo sighed. He closed his eyes for a moment, and opened them when he heard Renji sighed too.

"What's up?" He asked Renji. Renji looked at him and showed him a smile smile.

"Nothing." He simply answered.

Ichigo grinned and asked once again," Nothing?"

"Renji sighed, "Yeah…" He closed his eyes and opened them, grinning.

After that, they both laughed.

Byakuya saw this and felt jealousy creeping its way to his heart. His Renji was laughing openly with Ichigo. Not him.

Byakuya sighed softly.

It wasn't his business. He hadn't a thing to care of this. Whether when Renji smiled at Ichigo or when he laughed with him, when he patted the carrot top's head or when his head was patted back lovingly by Ichigo.

But of course, what important to him was that Renji was happy, and that was all he asked. Or so he thought.

But normally, there was a more important matter. Aizen's troop could be coming anytime, and the least he worried about was his fukutaicho stolen by Ichigo.

He must prepare for the next battle; he couldn't afford his emotions getting in the way.

And besides, Renji's body had not recover fully yet. And there was a fact that his rapid change was making its toll in Renji's strength.

Oh no, what he saw in front of him was definitely out of question.

There were, after all, more important matters for his concern.

Or were they?

O0O

Done! I'm so sorry it's not so good, and less thrilling too…

But at least it's done!

And I wanna make and important announcemet:

I'm gonna go to India for half a month, and without my computer, so I can't update for a while… Please bear with it. And right after that, I have lots of tests waiting… I'm sooo sorry!

Please review!


	12. Chapter 12: Impossible Guy

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: So sorry took so looong! I just got back from India and now in the middle of my examination week, so I can't very much update any sooner than this… Well, besides, studying is boring, I don't understand some of my friends that are actually have worse scores than mine studied so diligently as they tweeted on twitter, while they're some rebellious kids at school… Soo damn weird… Anyway, hope this chappie covers it!

Renji: Lil, you came back! I miss you!

Lil: Aaaaw, innocent Renji misses me! Ya hear that, Byakkun? He misses me! *Hugs Renji*

Byakuya:*Growls* Keep your hands off him… *Takes Renji away*

Ichigo: Hey, it doesn't mean you can be all cuddly to him! *Takes Renji from Byakuya*

"You guys, I'm not some kind of toys being passed around you know! *Pulling away from Ichigo*Escapes*

Lil: Aw man, see what you both did, now he hates us…*Pouts*

Byakuya: Renji… I'm sorry…*dramatically*runs after Renji*

Ichigo: Nooo! Renji come back! I'm soo sorry! *chases Renji*

Lil: *Chuckles* I love making them feel guilty...

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Mild cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, fantasy, AU (not really though…), yaoi (boy x boy love).

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 12: Impossible Guy

Ichigo, Renji, and Byakuya were on their way back to the living room for the planning against Aizen's troop. Ichigo and Renji chatted playfully to each other, seemingly oblivious to Byakuya's silent growls, which were to be expected because he did it 'silently'.

Sometimes, Ichigo would tease Renji, and the other times, Renji would tease him back. They had a very fun time together, leaving Byakuya out cold all alone. They were not to be blame though, for Byakuya himself did not wish to join in the conversation, thinking it was too 'childish'.

Sometimes later, Byakuya noticed that Ichigo was holding Renji's hand, but of course, being the oblivious one he was, Renji didn't seem to mind it. Byakuya was quick to switch place to Renji's right—he was beside Ichigo a while ago—and held Renji's other hand, which obviously pissed Ichigo off with no end whatsoever. _Huh, so he decided to play it that way… Fine then, you jackass…_ Ichigo thought as he silently yelled his curses at Byakuya in his head. But he couldn't help but feeling some sort of weird about what was happening to him and how his reaction exploded whenever Byakuya chose to act around Renji.

He _couldn't _be jealous… right? Yeah, yeah, sure, he wasn't jealous. He wasn't feeling any jealousy when Byakuya entwined his fingers with Renji's, just he felt his blood boiled in his veins and his heart beating faster than normal, and oh, he just felt his scowl getting darker and darker and his face was red from the leashed rage in himself… Yeah, it was nothing big. He wasn't jealous at all. Yeah, right…

Surely Ichigo was in denial of himself and his attraction for Renji. Yeah, he noticed that Byakuya had the same attraction towards the red head too, but Renji was always playing as the oblivious lamb, as a prey to the two wild lions fighting over him. Right, just like The Lion, the Lamb, the Man. But only this time, it was The Lion, the lamb _and _the Lion again… Pretty ironic, if one could think… The red head was sort of a hero to the younger squad members in his division, the saw him like an icon, a role model. His brass and stubborn behavior, they saw it like bravery, too much of it. They really liked him, worshipped him even… While Byakuya was their cold-hearted stone-headed captain in reality. But after all that, here came the red head, fully effeminate and ready to be called a _beautiful lady _when men in town saw him. Not to mention, they would get their ass kicked by two men so protective to Renji that we all knew so well.

From hero to… well, of course not zero, no he was still a hero, but more in a feminine way… Like the hero of feminism… Yeah, right…

Ichigo could picture Renji wearing a white long dress with pink touch here and there, standing boldly on top of a mountain of jewel; men surrounded him in kneeling position, asking him to marry each one of them with silent pleas and hands showing beautiful diamond rings for him and him only. And he was smiling sweetly at each one of them. Of course the fantasy didn't end there, Ichigo won't let it end there. He pictured Renji walked to the middle of the crowd gracefully, hands holding his dress up so he wouldn't trip or fall by accident that would be so embarrassing. He stood silently, the men wait in anticipation. And the last thing Renii said in Ichigo's fantasy was only," I'm sorry to all of you… But I've chosen someone else…"

Ichigo stifled back a laugh. Ooh, how he knew who that someone was… Yeah, sometimes he just loved his fantasies and/or imaginations. They made him like crazy, but they kept him from doing things rash just to make his needs came true. Yup, he was that kind of a guy; after all, he was an ex-delinquent.

Byakuya noticed Ichigo's smiling face and became suspicious of the boy. He could only think one thing that was going on in Ichigo's head, and he just hoped it wasn't like what he thought. No, not his red haired lieutenant anymore. Just imagining Ichigo thinking of Renji in anyway made his insides curled. He didn't want any other thinking about Renji, save himself. Yes, he also noticed he was being too possessive, but he couldn't help the feeling. He couldn't stop himself from thinking of the red head and being jealous to anyone that talked to him so friendly.

Both thought aside, the trio finally arrived at the living room with everyone waiting for them, busying themselves while waiting.

They could see Kisuke was talking to Yoruichi, smiling and laughing at each other. Sometimes, Yoruichi would whack Kisuke's head for being ridiculous, and on Yoruichi's side, the could very much see a seething Soi Fon, that sometimes growled when Yoruichi laughed and smiled along with Kisuke, and he would sweat dropped when he felt the dark aura from the Covert Ops captain.

On the right side of the room, Sado was talking to the wall—meaning he was as normal as a 'Sado' could be—and Orihime that sometimes tried to make conversation to him. Toushiro was arguing with Uryuu over nonsense like respect to the elders and to call Toushiro with his first name. Sometimes, Rukia would piped in the conversation after ridding herself from Kon the pervert, that seemed to take a liking in Rukia's every kicks as he would screamed "thank you nee-san!" while flying 5 feet to the air over and over again. Then there was Rangiku sat next to them, sometimes teasing Toushiro and Uryuu in their argument.

"That's why I told you, Toushiro—"

"It's Hitsugaya! How many times should I tell you that!"

"I can't help it when you look so much like an elementary student!"

"I'm NOT a kid!"

"I KNOW, but I told you, you look no different than an elementary student! NOT that you are a kid!"

"That's the same, idiot!'

"They're both different in any way!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Ugh, you are an official idiot!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Are—"

'SHADDUUUUUPPPP!"

Then there was silence from Uryuu-Toushiro side, while the others looked between them and back at the source of voice. Yoruichi.

"Good, I'm getting your attention. C'mon, those three have arrived." She said as she motioned them to the trio stood in the hallway.

"Well, what are you standing out there for? Get a move on!"

Ichigo nodded and tugged Renji's arm to follow him. As Renji was getting loose from Byakuya's hold, he gripped Renji's wrist and tugged him to the other side. Both men felt their movement stopped and looked at each other, soon enough glaring fiercely. Everyone who had seated themselves looked at the three pair and at Renji. He just smiled in troubled expression and shrugged.

"Let go."

"You let go!"

"It's not going to happen."

"Then same way here!"

"I don't take no as an answer."

"And me neither!"

"No one asked you that."

"Ohh, snap!"

Everyone looked at Rangiku, including Ichigo and Byakuya who glared at her.

"What?" she said, defending herself.

"Taicho, Ichigo! Stop acting like small kids, alright? Come on… here, like this." Renji said, sitting down and motioned Ichigo to sit on his left and Byakuya on his right.

"Now, there shouldn't be a problem, right?" Renji asked both men, completely satisfied with himself. Ichigo snorted along with an unlikely-to-snort-Byakuya.

Kisuke watched the trio for a while with glee in his eyes which earned a growl by Ichigo and a death glare by Byakuya. He sweat dropped and said," So, now that everyone gathered here—""Urahara-san."

Kisuke blinked at the interruption by Ichigo and looked at him questioningly.

"What is it, Kurosaki-san? Is there a problem?"

Ichigo, too, blinked and rubbed the head of his back and sighed. "Well, just wanna asked where the other lieutenants are…" he muttered down quietly.

"Ah, I see… Well, they're actually—""They're guarding the shop with Ginta and Ururu."

Kisuke just smiled and sweat dropped again at being interrupted twice, this time by Yoruichi.

"She's right. We thought it was too dangerous to leave the front of the shop unguarded, knowing that inside there are many important assist for the battle, discussing about a plan to defeat the enemies that are bound to come. I thought that if we are too absorbed in the planning…" Kisuke said, and then trailed off. "So, just in case, then?" Ichigo added. That received a nod by Kisuke.

"Well then c'mon people! We've got a ticking bomb at our side here! Let's hurry up with the discussion!" Yelled a very annoyed Kon, standing on the table with one hand up in the air, showing how serious he was in this.

_Heh, this gotta impress nee-san… heheheh…_

_*In Kon's Head*_

"_I say we should just go ahead and kill 'em all!" I screamed with all my might, standing in my Ichigo's body glory. My hand was up in the air, forming a fist and I punched it to my other hand, full of energy._

"_Kon, you're so brave!" Nee-san said dreamily to me and ran to me as she opened her hands ready to hug me; I caught her and held her tightly to me. _

"_Kon, I love you!" she confessed to me. Oh, this was heaven…_

_*Out of Kon's Head*_

The people in the room looked at Kon. He was drooling and hugging himself, blushing like mad and muttering 'nee-san' over and over again. Suddenly Rukia's fist connected to his head, squishing his stuffed animal body as he grunted out 'nee-san, your fist is so smooth… hehe…'

"Okay then people, let's just settle down and start discussing 'bout this!" coming out from Yoruichi, it wasn't so bad anymore.

"Alright… So, the hollows we encountered just then… Why do you think there were so many of 'em?" Ichigo said, picking out the first topic.

"You're right, Kurosaki-san… What do you think, Yoruichi-san?" Kisuke asked back to Yoruichi.

"Hmm, it is kinda interesting… I have a hunch that Aizen sent a bunch of 'em to distract Soul Society from some kind of plan…" Yoruichi said while rubbing her chin which was a pretty sight in Soi Fon eyes.

"You're right; he IS that kind of a guy, after all… But still, I don't know what kind of power he has, Urahara-san, what is it?" Ichigo asked Kisuke.

"Right, you still don't know his zanpakutou's power yet… Well, to put it simply, it's like hypnotism. He can fully hypnotize people that they think they're in a real reality. It's really dangerous, Kurosaki-san… But I tell you one secret..."

"Secret? Of his power?" it was Orihime's turn to ask.

"Like his weaknesses?" then it was Uryuu.

Sado stilled, waiting.

"Well, not exactly—"

"It was not—"

"Hitsugaya taicho maybe want to explain this one." Kisuke smiled after he heard Toushiro almost answered the question the same time as his.

Rangiku winked at Toushiro that made his vein showed and the room suddenly became very cold. Everyone was trembling including Rangiku, and Toushiro couldn't help but feeling satisfied. But seeing the others shivering too—and because Kisuke had pleaded him—he quickly turned up the heat to normal.

"…Right, sorry for that one, Urahara. Anyway, it wasn't a weakness, but… It's hard to explain, let's just say that one that hasn't witness his zanpakutou's shikai form could evade from his attack."

Ichigo ahd stopped shivering and said," So simply put, I must beat him up before he uses his shikai? Then what if he uses it before I fight him?"

"That's why it's very hard, Ichigo. You're our only ally that haven't witness his shikai."

"Hey, what about us? Don't you underestimate a Quincy power, you humanoid cat!"

"Maa maa, she surely didn't mean it that way, right, Yoruichi-san?" Kisuke assured the Quincy.

"No, I really meant it that way. You guys are not strong enough, and your powers—Sado, Orihime—are not identify either. And you, Quincy boy. It's not that I underestimate you, but you're not good enough as you are. You must train more, along with your two friends." Hearing that, Uryuu's hands clenched up and he gritted his teeth. Ichigo then had the urge to interrupted.

"Oi, Yoruichi-san! You don't have to be that harsh ya know…"

"No Ichigo, you don't understand. They must realize their weaknesses first if they wanna help us in the upcoming battle, and deal with those negative points of theirs."

"But still—"

"No, Kurosaki… She's right. We're pretty weak as we're now. I'll be stronger no matter what, thank you for the harsh words, Yoruichi-san…" Uryuu smile faintly.

"Yeah, we'e gonna be sooooo much stronger!" Orihime exclaimed.

"No problem…" Sado said.

"Good, now we—"

_Crash!_

"What is that?" Soi Fon shot up quickly, ready to fight.

"Whatever it is, let's just stay here and let the guys out there take care of it first." Kisuke too stood up and calmly told the people inside to stay calm and in complete alert.

They heard gasps from outside and heard someone talking. The man—obviously—sounded rasped and panted in every word he gasped out, though the party couldn't hear him quite well.

"Who's that?" Ichigo couldn't help but blurted out the question loudly.

"Ichigo! Shhhh! Don't be too loud!" Renji whispered to him with his index on his lips in a shushing gesture.

_Cute… _Byakuya and Ichigo couldn't help but thought of that when they saw Renji's innocent and childish gesture.

"R-Right… Anyway, that guy out there sounds f\pretty familiar, don't you think?" Ichigo whispered out while still listening to the guy's talking faintly.

"Kurosaki-san is right. But we can never be too careless… " Kisuke answered back. The others nodded and kept listening. They could only heard a few words like 'attack', 'coming', 'dangerous', and the most audible one was 'let me in!' and 'it's important'. They now they'd heard that voice before, but they simply couldn't place it.

But Rangiku shivered when she heard the voice, Toushiro noticed this and he had a concerned look in his eyes.

"Oi, Matsumoto, what's wrong?" he whispered out, everyone then looked at Rangiku.

"N-nothing Taicho… I just felt excited 'bout this!" Rangiku lied. Inside she had fear and sadness.

_No, it couldn't be…_

Finally, the door to the living room opened. The lieutenants were all laying on the floor, no blood, just unconscious.

The party gasped.

The person was wearing a white cloak with black linings, some parts were torn and he bled slightly. His face was a mess and his back was hunched. The once grinning lips was now turned into a frown and blood coming out from the corner. His brows furrowed sharper than ever and his eyes were threatening to fall shut.

Rangiku watched in horror as the man fell down to the floor all bloodied and dirty.

Everyone was shocked and surprised. They all thought _it's not possible, it couldn't be him!_

But the 10th squad lieutenant knew best. She had both her hands clasped on her mouth.

All of the other guys could hear her gasped out a single word.

"Gin?"

)O)O

Yay, a cliffy! Anyway, really… I hope that this chapter really worth it for the month(s) of my absent... And so...

Please tune in for the next chapter (yeah right…) and please review!


	13. Chapter 13: Emotionally Compromised

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: O-Oh my gosh… I can't believe I'm uploading this now! I'm sooo sorry! Please forgive this imperfect girl! *Kneels*

Well, I guess this is a late Christmas treat for you! Merry Christmas, guys!

Renji: You're so cruel, leaving us for months like that!

Ichigo: Yeah, you know I wanna know what happened next!

Yoruichi: What an irresponsible brat… Ya know I wanna tease lover-boy!

Lil: So sorry… TT TT But don't worry, you'll get the chance to tease lover-boy in this chapter!

Byakuya: If you're saying that lover-boy is me then, I'll kill you two.

Lil and Yoruichi: Aww, he's such a lover-boy!

Renji: Lover-boy? *confused eyes*

Yoruichi and Lil: *Snicker* you'll understand, someday…

Byakuya: *Glares at Lil and Yoruichi* Don't. You. Dare.

Yoru and Lil: *run away*

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, AU, yaoi (boy x boy love).

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 13: Emotionally Compromised

"Gin? I-it's really you…?"

Rangiku couldn't believe her eyes. The man, no, the _traitor_ of Soul Society... He was curling up in fetal position, torn clothes showing the deep gashes all over his back, one could tell that he had been on a very big fight with a monster. "Ichimaru… What is he doing here…" Toushiro growled out. Yes, he would _love _to kick this asshole ass for betraying the Gotei 13, but in such condition… What the hell happened to the bastard?

The group was speechless, meanwhile, Renji was almost had a huge urge to help the traitor and heal him. He didn't know but he felt mournful and his heart kept on forcing him to move and gave a good help for the ex-captain. No he mustn't think that way, the man was a traitor, a trash and useless for Seireitei, or even Soul Society! Well, maybe that was a bit too much, but… His conscious just kept on telling him that it was wrong. Renji didn't know what to listen anymore; his conscious or his heart…

Byakuya sense Renji's distress and couldn't help but growled, his eyes narrowed even more while his brows knitted down, his sweats getting hotter and he gritted his teeth. He snapped his eyes as he realized what had just happened. He didn't get livid because of Renji's discomfort, did he? Byakuya sighed softly; apparently, his emotions were so much in love with the idea of toying him around.

Kisuke snapped his paper fan close and said with a serious tone," Let's get him to lie down in a proper place or he'll have an even worse fever and his wounds would be reopened. Ah, Jinta, Ururu! Please take Lieutenant Matsumoto to a guest room." He finished with a smile. Out of nowhere, Ururu and Jinta came in and take Rangiku out—apparently she fainted—with Ginta complaining about the size of her chest and Ururu calmed him down to be side kicked by Ginta. Fortunately Tessai came in and take all three on his shoulders.

"Oi Urahara! You think this is a joke! We are NOT taking HIM anywhere!" Toushiro shouted, his pupils got smaller with hatred and disgust. The room when silent, Renji's eyes widen as he stared at Toushiro.

_He's filled with so much hate, _Renji thought. Without him realizing it, his tears started to fell down his cheeks and his form quivering with sadness. What's with him suddenly became sensitively emotional. Ichigo was fast to comfort Renji as he kneeled beside him, one comforting hand circling Renji's now smaller frame and the other one reaching for Renji's face.

Renji looked up to him, his tears still trailing down furiously, as if it would never stop. Ichigo wiped the tears gently with his thumb. It might not like him, but he, for the surprise of others, kissed Renji's closed eyelids and hugged him near, with his other hand change place to caressing Renji's soft satin-like hair.

"I'll… take Renji to his room; you guys go ahead and take care of the bastard. And Toushiro, cool down, maybe we can interrogate him later. That's what you want, right?" Ichigo said softly, he smiled a little and went off with Renji in arms. The rest of the people in the room gaped at Ichigo's actions just now. He, he actually kissed Renji's eyelids… and hug HIM! Byakuya could feel jealousy creeping down to his heart and he couldn't wait for the next time he saw the brat again. Oh, he'll feel the consequences for taking in what's his. Byakuya will kick his ass for sure.

Yoruichi felt a tremendously scary aura from Byakuya, knowing him, and smirked at that. It seemed like the little brat had grown into a very jealous and very possessive man. "Well, what are we waiting for? C'mon, let's get fox-face to rest. Ahh, little brat, I know you detest him, but bear with it, kay?" Yoruichi said grinning. "I'm NOT a brat and… whatever… Do what you feel like doing, I won't help though…" Yoruichi blinked and said," Well, whatever then…" and walked off with Kisuke, carrying Gin's body to the nearest room. "Ah, wait for me, Yoruichi-sama!" Soi Fon shouted and ran, following her dearest black cat.

"Damn, the fox-face is heavy for his lanky outlook…"

"Really, I think he's not at all… Ah, Soi Fon taicho is pinching my skin…"

"Soi Fon… Don't be a—""AAAHHH! Stop, stop, stoopp!"

"Oi, Soi Fon!"

"Ah, I'm so sorry, forgive me Yoruichi-sama."

"Uhh, I think my stomach is gonna leave a bruise for a couple of weeks."

"Don't be a cry baby, Kisuke…"

"…"

Toushiro heard the conversation in the other room and sighed. He sense that Byakuya had left, so he went out as well.

"Renji, you awake?" Ichigo asked as he saw Renji's eyelids fluttered as he laid dawn on a soft futon. Ichigo had taken Renji back to his room and noticed that Renji was asleep after the crying, so he decided to wait until Renji was awake again.

Renji slowly sat up; one hand supported his weight as he tried to sit up. He rubbed his eyes as he tried to adjust his vision. Ichigo looked at him and brushed some of the red strands of hair that fell down in front of Renji's face and tuck them behind his ear. Renji blushed and looked away.

Renji heard a chuckle and glared at Ichigo. "What's funny?" he pouted. "You." Ichigo laughed, holding his stomach. He laughed harder as Renji pouted even more and face red with embarrassment and a little bit of anger. After a moment he joined in the laughter with Ichigo. They enjoyed each other presence for a while and they didn't notice the presence behind the closed door.

Byakuya seethed in anger as he heard the laughter behind the paper door. He almost break in the door as he eavesdropped the two flirted with each other. Well, of course Renji did that unconsciously; as he knew Ichigo was the bastard of a target of Byakuya's fury. Oh, and he didn't eavesdrop the two, that was just a slip. He never eavesdropped, ever. Oh, alright, he would let it go, for now…

"Oi, Byakuya! What the hell are you doing here, huh? Ohh, don't tell me you're eavesdropping on the _sweet couple?"_ Yoruichi yelled loudly as she slapped Byakuya's shoulder suddenly. She smirked evilly as she saw Byakuya paled. The people inside the room in front of him rustled and by the sound of it, Renji jumped. "What the hell?" Ichigo said loudly from inside.

"I am not doing such a lowly thing." Byakuya said calmly as his mind was a wreck. Ichigo opened the door quickly and surprised at what he found. Yoruichi was grinning and Byakuya was still calm, though Ichigo could tell that he was paler than usual. Renji slowly looked out behind Ichigo with unsure eyes. "What're you two doing out here?" Ichigo asked incredulously.

"Ah, Ichigo! Well, Byakuya here—" Yoruichi said as she slapped Byakuya's shoulder"—was eavesdropping on ya." She finished with a huge grin. Byakuya glared daggers at Yruichi and growled quietly," I was not doing such a thing."

Ichigo and Renji blinked. Ichigo was almost going to say something, but Soi Fon jumped right in between the group angrily but kept calm—apparently she was left all alone with Kisuke as Yoruichi said she would be going to annoy Byakuya.

The four people looked at her expectantly as she turned to look at everybody. She looked serious and in a dead serious tone she said something that made the entire group's eyes widen.

"Ichimaru Gin has regain consciousness."

+_+_+_+ 0 +_+_+_+

Done! Sorry I leave it hanging on that part, just can't resist it.

Review please!


	14. Chapter 14: Thoughts of Betrayal

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

A/N: O-oh My GOD! Damn it, I'm sorry guys, it's been months you can say it's a hiatus! Sorry it took so long… It just that I just got over my final exam and still anxious about the results and my computer just got busted and I totally forgot I have a laptop and it was actually busted too and uhh… Anyway, my computer is fixed now and… hope you're still reading my story even after so long and… if there's even one loyal reader there, thanks for being patient waiting this long!

Ichigo: You bastard… You're just toying around, aren'tcha?

Lil: No! I told you that I have tests and my internet is—*interrupted*

Ichigo: *interrupting* Lie! Lile lie lie lielielielielieeee~! *sang*

Renji: Ichigo, you shouldn't say that! It's the truth, Lil talked to me some days ago about that… *pats lil's head* I understand Lil, don't worry. *smiles*

Byakuya: You don't touch my lieutenant. *glares*

Lil: W-well… O-onto the story! Before Byakuya kill me!

Byakuya: You're lucky your timing's perfect…*walks away*dragging Renji along*

Ichigo: *Yells at Byakuya*follows Byakuya*

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, AU, yaoi (boy x boy love).

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 14: The Thoughts of Betrayal

* * *

><p>"He's conscious? His eyes are like, wide open right now?" Ichigo asked dumbly.<p>

Soi Fon nodded seriously at Ichigo's dumb question. "Well, what're we waiting for? Let's move the treasure chest outta the bastard's mouth!" Yoruichi said excitedly and followed Soi Fon back to the traitor's room.

Renji blinked and looked at Ichigo," What was Yoruich-san saying, Ichigo?"

Ichigo looked back at Renji," Uhh… She meant to say that we should go and interrogate the basta-I mean Ichimaru Gin for any information…" "Oh, okay… Come on, you two!" Renji said, satisfied with the answer and hooked his hands around Ichigo's and Byakuya's arms and dragged them to Gin's room.

_He's so cute when confused…_ Ichigo thought. On the other hand, _He's very adorable when being insistent… Wait, NO, he's NOT adorable… What is happening to me? Is my mind betraying me too, along with my body? _That was what Byakuya thought, at war with himself apparently.

The trio arrived at the said traitor's room and still unbelieving, they saw that indeed, Ichimaru Gin was wide awake and even already sitting up! Kisuke was handing some kind of a medicine to him along with a glass of water; a hint of cautiousness was there. That changed though, when Gin abruptly smiled gratefully at Kisuke. He blinked and showed a goofy loop-sided smile, at the very least feeling comfortable at the sight of the small smile that, though only a slight, showed pure gratefulness and not even a bit feral as it used to be.

The abrupt slide of the shoji startled the occupants of the room as it slammed open. Gin was surprised to see not only Yoruichi, but even Kuchiki Byakuya was there, along with the Kurosaki boy and an unknown, very feminine man with a familiar reiatsu pulse. He of course already acknowledge Soi Fon's presence, because she was there when he first opened his eyes after losing blood so much that his face was as pale as ghost.

He didn't mind the intrusion though, the look plastered on the new comers were priceless! Yoruichi was, although a little bit relaxed, showed one ounce of surprised, and that was very rare; for she was Yoruichi after all. Kuchiki Byakuya was sporting the look of indifference, although the shock in his eyes was very barely hidden. Kurosaki Ichigo was scowling even deeper than usual and his hands clenched and unclenched, as if restraining himself from jumping on the silver haired ex-captain.

The familiar red-head was, if not surprised, showing a confused look, not to Gin himself, but it was as if the look was for himself, because all of the sudden, his eyes were blank. Seeing that, Gin was becoming confused himself. Who was this red-head? He looked too familiar? He was so girly, yet this reiatsu… he couldn't be mistaken, it must be…

Renji was really confused at himself; sure he felt rather angry at Gin for betraying Soul Society and joining the evil known as Aizen Sousuke. But… he also felt grateful that he was okay and healing. Renji didn't know where this feeling came from, but one thing for sure, he didn't like it. At least for now, because it made him too soft and… and… like a girl! A very sentimental one. Yeah, Toushiro had mistaken him for a girl when they first met after his 'unfinished' transformation, and sure, his—taicho's—male servants had treated him like a lady back in his—taicho's—mansion; but still! What changed him so much? Why? How? Why him?

Renji's confusing train of thought was abruptly stopped when Ichigo pulled him to his arms, apparently Orihime was making an appearance. Renji blinked and turned to see what news she had to give. Kisuke had asked her along with Sado and Uryuu to go and take a look around and move the unconscious bodies of the shinigamis, along with Rangiku, to the rooms to be treated just after Gin collapsed. Toushiro was nowhere to supervised, so they just had to trust their instincts of what to do with the situations.

"A-ano.. I, I mean we, have finished securing the perimeter as you said and the other two are just moving the last of the bodies, but don't worry! They have no serious injuries, and it even seems that… the technique used by-by… umm, the attacker was similar to nerve pinching because when I inspect one of the officers, he only has some bruises on his shoulder… um, I don't know what it's called…" Orihime informed with little blushes here and there when she thought she said something wrong.

Gin smiled at the girl, yes, she was the one Aizen was looking for after all. She looked really awkward and shy, but he knew her power was not to be underestimated. The others blinked confusedly though. So it was only nerve-pinching?

Kisuke smiled reassuringly at the girl, telling her that she did okay. "Good job, Inoue-san. Now, if you would please tell Ishida-san and Sado-kun to come here, and also with Hitsugaya Taicho if you will, we are about to discuss some… serious matter with this man here," Kisuke smiled cheerfully and pat Gin's shoulder gently, a friendly manner from the enemy.

Gin smiled at the thought, _this guy is too bold… _But Gin didn't mind, at all… It was the first time since he left Soul Society that someone was truly, genuinely, care about him and his well being. Aizen was nice he knew, but there was always some restraint in every of his actions, especially nowadays when he was just brooding on his throne all alone. Gin and Kaname had tried to make Aizen talk to them; maybe it was about the plan? Did he think his newest plan was too extreme? Maybe he regretted it? Or was it something else? But stubbornly as ever, Aizen Sousuke refused to talk.

* * *

><p>After some moments waiting around the room in awkward silent, Renji finally decided that it was enough.<p>

"Um, I wanna go outside for a while—""Wait!" Gin called. Renji jumped and turned around unsurely, facing the silverette. "Yes…?"

"Who are you? I mean, I've never seen you before. Are you a new recruit?" Gin asked. The occupants of the room stiffen and watched Renji silently for his reaction. _Pfft, I can't believe _another_ person doesn't recognize him! _ Ichigo thought rather amusedly despite himself.

Renji sputtered and blushed madly at the question. 'H-how could you? This is already going on for a few times now! I'm Renji! You see, who has a red hair like this if it's not me, Renji? And don't you dare say that I look like a girl, I've had enough of that! I'm going out!" Renji yelled furiously, still with a flaring blush on his face, and stormed out of the room.

"Well that was…" Ichigo began.

"Unexpected." Byakuya finished with a sigh. Ichigo glared at him for stealing his word, Byakuya stared back, coldly if I might add. The intense staring contest began yet again, now with extra noticeable sparks.

"Now now, you both, don't be brats now…" Yoruichi started, earning death glares from the—apparently—love rivals. She sweat dropped at their childish antics. Yoruichi sighed and smile at Ichio and Byakuya when they went back to the 'unsettled business' they had before. _Really, we all know the both of them have a thing or two for Renji, but they're still in denial? Look at them; they're practically kicking the other one out of the competition! _ She mused with a glint of mirth in her eyes. Kisuke had this look too, while Soi Fon and Gin were still a little bit confused, but catching up with the other two quickly.

Renji stormed down the hall and went to the living room. He found Toushiro there. Toushiro looked up and seemed to be a little bit flustered seeing Renji. Renji smiled kindly at him and sat down next to him, pouring himself a cup of tea that Ururu had made for Toushiro a while back.

"Hitsugaya taicho, aren't you supposed to be with Orihime and the others? Where are they anyway?" Renji asked, sipping his tea. He looked at Toushiro expectantly which made Toushiro flushed and looked down slightly to the tea in his hand.

"Well, the girl was here a while ago, she told me to come see that bastard… I mean Ichimaru. But I told her to just find her friends and that i will go there later." Toushiro explained from his tea, his eyes drooped as his mind wondered back to the incident where Hinamori was accusing him for killing Aizen. That was painful for him, but he knew he would get over it.

Renji put down his tea and looked up to the ceiling slightly, "Well, obviously you won't come, right?" then he looked down and smiled at Toushiro. Toushiro blinked in surprised at the statement, and how true it was. Renji scooted over to Toushiro's side and grasped his only slightly smaller hand in his, Toushiro blushed at that and looked away. "You know, taicho, I've been wondering… Why you keep so much darkness in yourself?" Renji asked softly, looking at Toushiro's reverting gaze. Toushiro's eyes widen and looked up at Renji, to see a sad looking face that wrenched his heart so tightly and painfully. He frowned and looked down again.

"I don't know, honestly, Abarai. I just can't help it, Hinamori's words that day… It was so painful and… When she pointed her sword at me, I was… I just, I don't know anymore! It was too much too bear! And when I found out she was went into a coma state because of shock, I was so terrified… It was too painful, and even when the day she knew Aizen had betrayed Soul Society and her… She still won't believe it, Abarai! She kept telling herself that Aizen was, was still the kind taicho that he used to be!" By now, Toushiro's face was a mess; tears flowing down his face as he wept for his miserable state of mind and for Hinamori's too. He was bearing the pain for two inside himself, who wouldn't break, given the situation?

Renji pulled Toushiro to a comforting embrace and wept along with him. He muttered out soothing words at Toushiro and rubs his back softly, telling him that it would be alright, that he didn't have to say anything anymore that pained him dearly, but still, Toushiro continued," She kept on saying that Aizen was not evil, saying it down again and again like it was a mantra! It pained me, truly, it was… And now, she's still very much unconscious and I am to blame… Seeing the traitor brought along two other captains, I was so enraged, and now that I see one of them right under my nose, the rage, the burning fire of hatred inside me comes to life! It's not wrong for me to hate the guy who works for someone who hurts my dearest, right, Abarai?"

Renji stilled at that. He didn't know what to say. No, rather, he didn't know how to put it in coherent words. Renji pushed Toushiro out of his embrace slightly and looked his teary eyes with the almost identical ones, except for the colors. Renji looked at him softly with a wave of comfort and finally said…

"No. You're wrong."

Toushiro looked surprised, and then hurt came along. "I see, you're like everybody else, aren't you? All those kind words, that embrace, they're all lies, aren't they? ANSWER ME!" Toushiro screamed. Renji looked surprised and then shushed Toushiro, knowing that some people might had already heard them.

'No, taicho! You got me all wrong!" Renji tried to explain, but Toushiro got up and looked down at him. "I thought that you'd change. I guess it's only for the look, huh?" then he walked away.

Renji's eyes were wide in fear. Those eyes, they were so… dark. Full of hatred and betrayal. Renji felt himself crying once more.

* * *

><p><em>They're all the same, they're all the same, they don't understand. All those words, all those hugs and embraces, they're all the same, they don't understand me THEY'RE ALL THE SAME! <em> Toushiro abruptly stopped. He had been running so fast, he didn't know where he was anymore. His eyes were wide and they were all filled with tears. He looked around and found that he was at the river bank. He sat down on the grass and watched the river flow. It was already sunset.

He knew Renji had more to say, he knew they were all had. But he couldn't stand it, he felt so… pathetic. He was too easy to lose trust in someone, except for Hinamori. Even when she spoke harsh and stabbing words at him, when she pointed he sword at him, and how she attacked him, he still trusted her. He believed in her, he believed she would come out of it eventually, that she would be the old Hinamori again.

It was wishful thinking, he knew. But it won't be a harm to believe in her right? WRONG. He had done harm to many others, to those who wanted to help him out of his miserable hell hole, even Renji. He grimaced. Renji, why had he said those words to him? From Renji's actions a few while back, he knew that Renji had a really sensitive heart now. He even cried along, dammit! Toushiro knew he had done a grave mistake of hurting someone who cared so deeply for him.

He wanted to go back and asking forgiveness from Renji, but he thought that Renji must be mad at him and came to hate him now. He sighed miserably and lied down on the soft grass. He had been torturing himself, he deserved a rest. No, he didn't deserve it, he didn't deserve kindness too. He just throw that kindness away like a trash a few while ago, he couldn't be expecting someone to give it back to him. He smiled painfully to himself," I don't deserve anything good in life… I've been throwing them all away like crap…"

"No, you just deserve better things, Taicho…" Someone whispered softly next to him.

Toushiro's eyes went wide and looked at the person. "But, why…?" he asked at the unexpected person, he had reject him, and yet…

He still came back to rescue his bleeding heart, once again…

* * *

><p>Ohh, I didn't mean it to be THAT angsty… I don't even know I can't write something like that! I didn't even feel anything when I wrote that part… Really... But yup, at least it's still a chapter, though there are not many ByaRen or IchiRen moments here. And yes, I decided to leave the chapter at that, don't know when I'll update… I'm not the kind of person that follows the schedule, oh well…<p>

I really want to say sorry to toshirolovr94 for not replying your PM on me for such long months you must think i hate you, and honestly, I'm too ashamed to reply to it now... And yes i know I'm contradicting my words on not putting the pairing on the summary, but it was hard for me to explain it then... What i meant was, that you shouldn't put the pairing IF you want the story to be mysterious and make other curious, BUT, if you want the reader to sneak a peek at the story via summary, you can do that... That was my thought anyway, i was too immature then and a smartass, maybe you've forgotten about that too, but i just wanna say sorry for my selfishness... Sorry toshirolovr94, I'm such a bad person... *hic* I know that i shouldn't promise or give advice to others too much now, because i still can't control my actions, we all can't...

Anyway, all the sad and sorry are done so... *returns to high state*

I'm betting most of you already know who the mysterious person is! And, please don't forget, review as much as possible! I might upload the next chapter sooner than!

R&R!


	15. Chapter 15: Comfort for the Heart

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

**A/N: **Ohh, this is a new record for the year! At last I can update a chapter without it being months long! And thank you for all the review! To answer your questions, no, it won't be a ByaRen or IchiRen only, but it won't be a ByaRenIchi either, since we all know that Bya and Ichi won't share Renji. So it would be like a rivalry between Bya and Ichi, though both knew they won't be able to get rid of the other, because they don't wanna hurt our dearest Renji's feeling! So it would sorta stay like this in their tangled up relationships… And I noticed how a few of you had guessed that Renji would be a female, but NO. I happen to love yaoi, thank you very much, and I won't ruin the yaoiness of this fluffy story with a girl!Renji…

Byakuya: You better make me have more appearance with Renji in this chapter, human, or I'll kill you…

Lil: A-alright already, I'm making it right now! Go! Go away!

Ichigo: Hey, what about me?

Lil: Oh, shut up, you strawberry… I'm making you very jealous in this chapter… *Evil Laugh*

Renji: *Reading the unfinished chapter* I-I don't know that taicho is always that kind of man! *shocked*

Byakuya: What is it? *Scooting over to Lil*

Lil: Oh, no way, you cheater! *Hiding the computer screen behind her back*

Ichigo: Move over or I'll… *Cracking knuckles*Evil Grin*

Renji: C'mon you two! Let's not bother cute little Lil and buy some ice cream! *1000,000,000 volt cute smile*

Bya&Ichi: *Die in happiness*

Renji: *Frantically waking them up*

Lil: Well at least they won't bother me for a while… *Mutters*Typing on the keyboard like a nerd*

Full Summary:

Once upon a time, a Lily showed up in the world of the living, ordered by the gods and goddesses in the sky. The Lily's task was to be the guardian of the Earth and the worlds that surrounded it, for a certain evil would destroy them for one purpose…

Warnings: Cursing, violence, OOC, OCs, AU, yaoi (boy x boy love), fluff, possessive!Protective!Bya&Ichi.

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

Enjoy!

Chapter 15: Comfort for the Heart

* * *

><p>After Toushiro stormed off outside, Renji just sat there, frozen. His mind was still trying to catch up with his wrecked and messed up feelings. He was scared of Toushiro's eyes when he looked down at Renji with so much hatred and betrayal lacing on every word he said. Renji was sad too, that someone had managed to be so miserable. He wanted to run after the 10th squad captain and explained to him what he had meant to say, that he was always there for him when he needed a shoulder to lean on, because Renji knew the pain was too unbearable to face alone.<p>

As Renji silently wept for the pain Toushiro was bearing, Byakuya came to him. At first, he was getting a little antsy that Renji had not yet came back to the room, so he told the others in the room silently that he would go search for Renji. Ichigo of course felt some kind of a familiar anger inside him and tried to stop Byakuya.

But Byakuya had said,_'Abarai-fukutaicho is of my responsibility,it is my duty to take care of him. And thus, it is now my duty to find him and bring him back,'_ Ichigo knew what Byakuya was meant to say though.

'_You had your turn, now it's mine. Besides, I don't share.'_

Yup, Ichigo knew it was along that line, so he let go of Byakuya's arm and grumbled silently, noticeably sulking. The other occupants looked at him, amused. Even Gin was smiling slightly, making the other looked at him, each one of them with a slightly raised eyebrow.

Byakuya walked down the hall, knowing that Renji must be in the living room. He stopped on his track when he heard a sob. He quickened his pace, the sobs were more broken each time he walked nearing the living room and by the sound and the reiatsu flowing, it was Renji. He gritted his teeth, wanting to break something because someone just managed to make _his _Renji cried! He would be damned if he let that someone go without the proper payback, which is a _slow _and _painfully sweet_ torture to death.

Byakuya finally arrived at the room, and he was nearly heartbroken at the sight. Renji was sobbing and tears were falling endlessly down his cheeks. The picture was very beautiful; the tears rolling down red cheeks, glistening like crystal shining under the soft caress of sunlight. Long lashes fluttering, wet because of the tears, ghosting over Renji's cheeks, flickering warm chocolate brown eyes and the red long hair fanning about him, looking shiny and silky as ever. But inside, Byakuya knew, the beautiful red hair was very torn and pained to no end.

Byakuya approached Renji silently and slowly, crouching low right in front of him, and suddenly wrapped his arms around Renji, as if protecting him from the harm's way. Renji gasped and tried to push weakly but gave up when he noticed who it was. The blush on his face darkened and he clutched Byakuya's clothing for dear life. Byakuya rocked Renji in his arms, comforting the sobbing red head. He even managed to look cute when he was crying, truly a wonder.

Renji snuggled closer to Byakuya's warm and broad chest, something that would earn 'aaawww' and 'so cute' from Yoruichi and the rest of her sick gang if they were here. Byakuya didn't know why, but he felt rather happy that Renji would seek comfort in his arms. Sure, it might be because of his change so that his emotional state was—might be-disturbed, but Byakuya had always wanted to hold Renji this way, and that realization made him redden slightly.

After the red head had calmed down, Byakuya pushed him away a little to look into his eyes. Renji tried to look away from the penetrating gaze, but found himself trapped; meaning his face was held by Byakuya's one, strong hand.

"Tell me," Byakuya ordered softly, or it would sound that way, he didn't really even thought of giving command to Renji nowadays. Renji blushed and asked back," Tell you what?" his eyes were gazing at everything but Byakuya's dark onyx eyes.

Byakuya sighed and once more he tried," Renji… You know you can tell me anything," _and by that I mean, everything, if you want to,_ Byakuya added mentally. Renji gave up, knowing his taicho always got what he want, when he wanted it. "I was… talking with Hitsugaya taicho and… things just became too emotional, that's all…" Renji wasn't really lying when he said that, but both knew it wasn't such a satisfying answer.

Knowing he wouldn't get anything else from the other shinigami, Byakuya stood up. Renji's head shot up to where Byakuya was standing, fearing he would leave. But Byakuya did no such thing, instead he said," I know you want to go after him… Wherever he was," and Byakuya just knew that Renji was afraid of doing that all by himself. He even felt relieved that Renji hadn't had the courage, because he, honestly, didn't want Renji to go outside and got himself in danger.

Renji looked up at Byakuya, as if seeing him in a new shine; his eyes sparkling with hope and relief. He then jumped up from his position to Byakuya's not-so-ready arms. Byakuya flushed a bit and rubbing Renji's back affectionately, unconsciously.

* * *

><p>"If I'm not wrong, Hitsugaya taicho must be heading to the river bank… that's where he usually go when we're in the Human World," Renji concluded. He and Byakuya were currently walking down the unusually quiet street of Karakura Town, now heading to the river.<p>

They search for a certain silver haired brat—I mean taicho—along the river bank. For Renji, it wasn't concerning the beauty of the river in the middle of dusk, but searching for the upset taicho was. For Byakuya, however, it was a completely different mater. Honestly, Byakuya was not very interested in finding Toushiro, but the walk with hand-to-hand was completely worth it. Especially when Renji gripped his much larger hand tightly, not wanting to be alone, and the river-sunset background wasn't really helping his unconsciously wandering mind.

Suddenly Byakuya remembered his dream about the soutaicho, the one with the soutaicho with a complete kimono and running away for Byakuya half-heartedly like an act in some corny romance. That was really a turn off—in a really innocent meaning. He paled quite considerably and almost puked right there and then, if not for Renji being the cute one he was, smiling brightly at him, oblivious of Byakuya's state of health—and mind.

"I found him! Look!" Renji squealed delightfully, but discretely because he didn't want to scare the young taicho and had him running away again. Of course Toushiro wouldn't be scared, and he wouldn't run away again—he was not THAT of a coward, silly Renji.

Renji walked away from Byakuya and went closer to Toushiro. From Byakuya's distance, he couldn't hear what Toushiro was mumbling about, but Renji was very near, and what he heard was making him very sad and pained.

"_I don't deserve anything good in life… I've been throwing them all away like crap…" _

Renji trembled softly, trying really hard not to cry. His lower lips trembled but he walked closer and closer until he was right next to Toushiro, in his current state, he didn't notice either Byakuya nor Renji's reaitsu. Renji clasped both of his hands tightly behind his back, lowering himself slightly next to Toushiro, shadowing his frame. "No, you just deserve better things, taicho…" he said softly. Toushiro jerked out of his position in surprise and looked up at Renji. Toushiro's eyes went really wide; Renji was smiling warmly at him, a sign which meant to be comfort and acceptance.

"W-why?" Toushiro asked, unable to form other words. Renji closed his eyes and sighed loudly, and smiled down at Toushiro, this time with a hint of mirth. He flopped down next to Toushiro, unaware that Toushiro was watching him the entire time with unbelieving eyes.

"I know what you think of me. You thought I hate you now, didn't you?" Renji said, more lake a statement than a question. When Toushiro about to answer back, Renji interrupted him mercilessly," But! You're terribly wrong mister!" Renji stated loudly and a little bit too cheerful if Toushiro must say. Renji continued, this time he was smiling down to the river in front of him," I will never hate you, Taicho. More like, I can't, that's in my nature. Yeah, I know I was a little bit scared looking at your eyes then, because it was so dark and… you know what I mean," Renji finished sheepishly, grinning in a whole new level of grinning; it was too soft to be a grin, but too cheerful to be a smile.

"Why would you be scared of my eyes?" Toushiro asked this time, feeling a little bit healed by Renji words. The way this person do things, Toushiro decided, was very comforting. "I-I don't know… After this, you know—"Renji began, gesturing his hand all over his transformed body,"—after this… change in me, I… I don't know, I just… change, you know, in my perspective; the way I see things, the way I sort my thoughts, the way I… judge people, they are all changed, in a very confusing way. I started judging people's feelings by the look in their eyes, how they were unable to conceal their entire feelings from me… It's like I can see people's emotions beneath their masks, like they were bare. I know I'm a freak…" Renji muttered the last part sadly.

Toushiro couldn't help but feeling Renji was being unfair to himself," Give yourself some credits, Abarai! Not all people can be like you, you should be thankful for you gifts!" Toushiro said sternly, his broken self was now long forgotten. Renji smiled at this and said," If I accept myself for who I am… Then promise me that you would accept yourself too!"

Toushiro blinked at this and sighed in defeat. He smiled at Renji and held out his hand," Deal," he said. Renji smiled brightly at this and got a firm grip at Toushiro's hand," Deal!" he squealed.

* * *

><p>Byakuya, sensing the tense atmosphere had been lifted, decided that it would be best for him to bring back those two to Kisuke's house again. He was so sure the others were getting annoyed by their absence and wished to get the interrogation finished as soon as possible. So, he walked to Renji and Toushiro, right in time when they were standing up and walked to him. What Byakuya noted the most was, that both had their hands entwined to each other, much like what he and Renji did a couple of moments ago. The second one was that Renji was noticeably happy and satisfied now.<p>

Toushiro looked at Byakuya, then back at Renji, and to their entwined hands. Sensing jelousy was on the way, he decided to be mischief for one, and moved closer to Renji, his body touching Renji's slender side and experimentally rubbing his head on Renji's arm like a kitten. Renji noticed it and felt very endeared about the act, and he decided right then to smiled cutely and caressed Toushiro's fluffy soft hair. Toushiro grinned evilly and discretely and looked at Byakuya. What he saw almost made him doubled over in laughter.

Byakuya was growling loudly, his eyes were dark in jealousy unknown to himself as he watched Toushiro's mischief acts. Toushiro was snickering inwardly, couldn't find himself to believe that Renji didn't even notice the growling raven and only smiled. "Well, let's go then, don't want to have the others on our necks, do we?" Renji chuckled at his own joke. But no one there was laughing, or even found the joke really funny.

Toushiro was enjoying himself inwardly, when he felt Renji was being literally ripped away from his person. He blinked and looked at Byakuya, now holding a shocked Renji in his arms possessively, growling at Toushiro. Toushiro sweat dropped, his facial expression was very comical.

Renji blinked twice then looked up from his place to see Byakuya's scary looking face. Strange enough, Renji didn't feel the fear, instead he somewhat felt very… safe and secure in Byakuya's arms. Even if he didn't knew that Byakuya was being possessive, his body seemed to react positively to it, and snuggle closer to Byakuya's warm body. The act was surely won't go without a reaction, Renji felt Byakuya held him even tighter but gently.

What really surprised both Toushiro and Renji was, Byakuya scooped Renji up in bridal style and suddenly vanished. Toushiro shook his head and shunpo'ed after the two.

* * *

><p>Byakuya was extremely furious. How dare that tiny short urchin rubbed himself to Renji! He was almost <em>glomped <em>the oblivious red head! Byakuya growled inwardly. How could Renji be so calm about that? Surely he knew that he belonged only to Byakuya!

Wait.

He just didn't say Renji belonged to himself, did he? Byakuya groaned softly—wow, a Byakuya was growling! He noticed that Renji was looking at him with a worried and disbelieving look. Apparently, Byakuya just noticed what he did a moment ago, and extremely regretting it for his body to be so uncontrollable.

Renji smiled at Byakuya, it was the first time he had seen a flustered Byakuya in his entire life, it comforted him to know that Byakuya would open up to him, even though his earlier act was very questionable. Byakuya blinked at Renji's face and felt himself calmer; really, the red head seemed to have a calming effect on people.

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><p>Ichigo grumbled and pouted from his position in the room, everyone seemed to notice this and backed away slightly.<p>

"Where the hell is that good for nothing idiot? What took him so long! Sheesh, I knew he is not so dependable, that bastard. If I find a scratch on Renji, I swear I'll…" Ichigo stopped, realizing what he just said. He blushed and hid his face. _Shit, man! How many times do I have to embarrass myself? _

The others in the room sweat dropped. Ichigo could be all weird sometimes, but it wasn't like they didn't know what he was about to say, oh no, they knew Ichigo's feelings, alright, and Byakuya would not be pleased if he knew that Ichigo would be his rival of love. The thought left them all snickering inwardly.

Gin was feeling comfortable indeed; all the people here didn't seem to really handle him like a threat. He liked these people so much for that; they were all very open to a new reason to know him—except for Toushiro. That left him with the feeling of guilt.

Orihime, Uryuu, Sado and Rukia had arrived a moment shortly after Byakuya was going to Renji; apparently, Rukia was sneaking out of the house after Orihime and her friends went outside, and even the others didn't seem to notice her missing. Sado found her at a toy store, looking through the newest collection of 'Chappy the Rabbit', the fact that no one could see her in her shinigami form was disturbing, and Sado had to call for her too, making all the other customer looking at him strangely.

A few moments after Ichigo's embarrassing outburst, the shoji door was finally slid open, by none other than Kuchiki Byakuya, not far behind him was Toushiro, who looked as if he was restraining a laugh. What made the other surprised was the fact that Byakuya didn't come with bare hand. A very comfortable Renji was nesting in his arms, looking as cheerful and cute as ever.

Now, that everyone was here, the so-called interrogation could start. If only Ichigo wasn't seething in jealousy and waiting for someone to explain WHY Renji was in Byakuya's arms and why did he even cared in the first place?

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><p>Yay finished! It's not really a chapter, since it's not all about the main storyline, just some lame-ass angst and really bad hurtcomfort. See, I'm not really good at those kinds of things. But I can say to myself that I totally engrossed in writing a fluff story, not to mention a story with possessive seme and cute uke. Kyaaaa, my fangirl blood is activating! Argh, Y-yaoi blast!

Okay that was weird… I can't help but find myself disappointed with such a short chapter, i just can't make it any longer!

Anyway R&R! You know what that means, Review&Review! Haha, for you who thought it was Read&Review, you're wrong, man! Alright, stop it already you good for nothing, body-controlling, freakish mind of mine! You're scaring the readers!

Sorry for that, people sometimes call me freakish and random anyway… Review! Lots and lots of it!


	16. Chapter 16: The Finished Puzzle

**The Tales of Lilies: Lily of the Guardian**

**A/N: **I… I can't even describe how… sorry I am. I don't even know what to say…. But at least, I updated at last, right…? *squirms*

Warnings: GRAMMAR ERRORS, OOC, OCs, AU, yaoi (boy x boy love), fluff, possessive!Protective!Rivals!Bya&Ichi.

"Speaking"

_Thought/dream/flashbacks_

PLEASE enjoy…!

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><p>Chapter 16: The Finished Puzzle<p>

* * *

><p>"Hey! Why you got your arms all comfy around Renji, huh?!" Ichigo yelled at Byakuya, who looked at him indifferently and then smirked smugly. Ichigo's mouth twitched at that, a vein popped on his head. Renji looked back and forth between the two, looking as confused as ever, while the other occupants were looking at the trio with mirth.<p>

Yoruichi leaned a little to Soi Fon and comically moved her mouth to the side so that her voice could be heard louder, making her like a gold fish and said," I can't believe the cutey-head can't understand that he has two super hot guys fighting over him… And I thought it's an all girls dream to be in his position," Yoruichi snorted to at an effect. Soi Fon blushed at her and looked down, _Ahh~ Yoruichi-sama… Being this close to you is my only dream~! _

"Pfft…" Just like that, all the people snapped their head to the source of the surprisingly-sounded-like-a-suppressed-laugh sound. It turned out to be Gin. His shoulder shook because of the force of the laugh, and the fact that he was suppressing it was not helping. He wiped the tears from his eyes and looked up to see the room looking at him.

Kisuke coughed a little and said, "Well, then. Now that we all are here, let's go down to business shall we?" The others nodded their agreement and straightened themselves; Byakuya, Renji and Toushiro sat on the floor like the others. Unsurprisingly, Ichigo moved a bit so that he was right next to Renji, so that made him sat in between Ichigo and Toushiro, much to Byakuya's dismay.

"Now, would you care to tell us how did you get all those wounds?" Kisuke asked Gin, who turned into serious mode immediately. Gin coughed," Well, I guess I should start from the reason I betrayed Soul Society, then," he began. The others were silent, watching the man as he was about to tell them the truth.

"I never did. I mean, I never betrayed Soul Society," Gin said. Gasps were heard at that," Could you please explain more, _ex-_captain?" Toushiro asked quite rudely. Gin smiled bitterly at that, but didn't reply, instead, Renji did it for him," He is about to, my dear impatient taicho." Toushiro blushed and looked away while grumbling incoherent words, while Byakuya and Ichigo were seething quietly when they heard Renji called Toushiro '_His_ _dear_ impatient taicho'.

Gin coughed again, getting the people's attention once again and continued his explanation, "As I was saying, I never betrayed you. I was pretending then, in front of all of you, fooling everyone, even Aizen and the soutaicho. I never thought they would be fooled like that, but they did, my acting in front of all of you worked out quite nicely."

"Why?" Kisuke asked. Gin looked at him and said darkly," I want to kill Aizen."

"What?" Ichigo barked. "What the hell are you talking about?" Toushiro demanded. Byakuya moved silently next to Renji, so that Toushiro moved away, and put his arms around Renji when he felt the slighter man trembled at Toushiro's loud voice. He glared at the said person, who looked quite guiltily at Renji. Ichigo silently cursed the dark-haired captain.

"Geez, why is everyone treating me like a fragile china? I'm quite capable of taking care of myself, just because I'm trembling a bit, doesn't mean I'm gonna break! I was just feeling a bit cold!" Renji huffed; he was getting sick of everyone treating him like a doll, even over trivial things. He was just a bit cold!

"I apologize; I didn't know being vulnerable affects you that much." Byakuya said softly, looking slightly guilty, but doubtful of Renji's earlier statement. There's no way the red-head can take care of himself in THAT condition. Then Byaukya continued," But then, if you really are cold…" he put his arms around Renji again and held him tightly in his warm embrace, making Renji blushed hotly and Ichigo fisted his hands and growled at Byakuya.

Renji huffed and leant back to Byakuya after seeing that it was no use for him to struggle and sighed," I just don't want to feel weaker than I already am in this condition… Anyway, please continue, Ichimaru taicho, sorry I interrupted you." Renji said apologetically at Gin.

Gin smiled at him and continued on his story," It's just that… Aizen hurt Rangiku, and I will never forgive him for that. So I pretended to be loyal to him all this time, and it was the reason I joined the Gotei 13, to execute my revenge on Aizen Sousuke. He was a snake that one, he knew how to act in front of all of you all this time, tricking even the soutaicho to believe him. But just like a snake too, he has small brain, I guess, because he fell on my act too." Gin smiled to himself at that. The whole time, everyone was silent, listening to every word he said, storing every surprising new fact he told them about where his real loyalty lies.

Then the smile on Gin's face vanished, and replaced by a frown," But Aizen was a smart man too, after all, he was the 5th division ex-captain… All these years I've acted as his loyal right hand man, and he believed it too, for so long. But only a few hours ago, just because of a tiny slip, he knew all about my plans. And quickly put actions into it, he tried to kill me. I was lucky enough to open a gate to the human world just as he was about to give his last blow. I've wondered since, if he was actually letting me go, and that he had a plan for me in the future…" he trailed off.

"Wait, what do you mean by 'a tiny slip'?" Renji asked.

Gin smiled," We were, as usual, all alone on his throne room and we were talking about… some stuff. Anyway, when he said in a very rhetorical manner that he will carry out all his goals with the Hogyoku, I accidentally asked what would happen if the Hogyoku was stolen from him."

"So? You only asked 'if' the Hogyoku WAS, doesn't mean he—Wait. You wanna steal the Hogyoku?! From HIM!" Toushiro gasped; shocked that Gin would actually go that far to protect Soul Society. The large amount of hatred to Gin was slowly ebbed away within Toushiro even though he was still in denial.

"Yes, Aizen was smart like that. He noticed it too, like you Hitsugaya taicho, that I want to steal it, because he knew how much like him I was, a sly snake, and quickly put pieces together and realized that I was playing a part all along. But he never knew why i did that, he only knew that i wanted to steal the hogyoku and kill him, he never knew the reason behind that. The rest, you know what happened to me after that." He finished.

"Unbelievable." Soi Fon said in awe. The rest of the room was silent, but we all know that they were all as amazed as Soi Fon; who knew that the man they thought betrayed Soul Society, was actually playing a part all along to get his revenge on Aizen for hurting... Rangiku?

"Well, that's enough for today. We can continue this tomorrow, besides, there were no hollow in the area as Inoue-san said before. Also, it's late at night and Abarai-kun, you haven't eaten have you? Let's continue this tomorrow; all these tensions are making my old body tired." Kisuke said, getting up. Ichigo snorted at the last line but quickly reminded that, yes, Renji hadn't eaten anything since he came from Soul Society, and that was all that mattered for that moment, for both Ichigo and Byakuya, of course.

Ichigo was about to help Renji up, but Byakuya was already holding Renji up and pulled his wrist to follow Byakuya. That just made Ichigo more and more pissed at the stoic captain.

After Renji had eaten, he was quickly sent to bed because his face was very pale and he was very tired, and he drifted off to sleep.

_*****Dream*****_

_Renji was standing right in front of the slightly ajar majestic gate from his earlier dream. The gate with the work of art of Haruka and another unknown person but seemed very familiar. _

"_Ahh, Haruka. I almost forgot about that guy."Renji said to himself. _

_Suddenly, there was a snicker and someone growling. Renji knew that growling, sound, it sounded just like… Haruka! So he must be here somewhere, Renji thought._

_He then stepped inside the gate and found himself in a large and long hallway. It was only a plain white hallway, it was bare and nothing was in sight. With curious determination, Renji broke into a jog to the end of the hallway. _

_Then he came down to a fork. There were three different hallways leading to different places, but in one of the white marble tiles just before the fork, he saw a note lying on the white tiled ground; tiny enough to slip out of sight, and white enough to be concealed by all the whites surrounding it. He picked it up and read the note._

"_If you really are the red flower, then use your all-seeing eyes to find the truth that lies within."  
><em>

_Still confused, Renji read the sentence over and over, feeling a headache coming in. The red flower? Renji had never heard of that before. He tried to digest every word in the note. The red flower. Renji was the red flower. Deep down, Renji knew he was. With a determined look, Renji closed his eyes and let instinct did its job. _

_He felt serene and at peace. Even when he closed his eyes, white light always shined in the middle of his darkened vision, as if never wanted Renji to be at complete darkness. The small light danced around in his mind, radiating warmth in his heart and in every corner of his absolute existence. Finding peace was a hard job for him once, but now, he felt as if peace _was _the one to _look _for him. And most of all, he felt power. Power that neither he nor no one else had ever before. Not the power of brute strength, nor the power that a powerful shinigami had. It was a power beyond everything he could ever imagine, the power of the gods themselves. Wisdom, all-seeing, infinite mind, and a heart to contain even the universe itself. He could only felt awe at the power he felt within himself. _

_When he opened his eyes, they turned to a very bright blue color from the usual warm chocolate, and turned his head to the right. He saw a glint of light on one of the tiles leading him to the right direction of the fork. His eyes turned back to normal and he walked closer to the small glint of light he just saw, footsteps as light as feather, graceful, even more than a feline. He kneeled on the ground and saw that the tile was slightly off. It was a little thicker and brighter than the other tiles. He then reached said tile and tried to lift it with his fingers._

_With surprise, Renji actually pulled the tile off its place and set it aside. Renji gasped at what he saw inside._

_A lily. _

_He slowly touched it and with a very familiar touch of electricity, he knew it was the lily he saw on the flower field, and on his captain's flower bed. He lifted it at sniffed the flower. _

_Renji never smelled anything so good in his life. It was the most wonderful smell ever. The flower began to glow along with his body, and slowly the petals' white color faded and turned into a faint red color. Renji loved that color. Something tingled in him, and he knew that he was changing again. He silently hoped that he didn't actually turn into a girl._

_Unconsciously, Renji walked down the hallway where he found the lily, until he reached a place that took his breath away._

_It was a garden. With billions of lilies of any kind and color! A small river was flowing on his left and he looked behind him to find that there was no hallway there. He put that aside to take a look at his beautiful surrounding again. The small river went to an also small water fall that ended on a large spring. The prefect picture of Nature's beauty._

_He was standing in the middle of a very neat path way which led him to a white and beautiful pavilion. He walked down the path to the pavilion, to see his next surprise._

_He saw two men there. Haruka and the man he saw on the gate. They both were smiling very warmly at him and suddenly, he felt tremendously happy and he just wanted to embrace both men in front of him._

"_Renji." Haruka called his name warmly and held his hand out for Renji to take. Renji took the hand and walked to the middle of the pavilion. Suddenly Hruka and the other man held him tight on their embrace. Renji felt so happy that tears came trailing downfrom his eyes and suddenly he remembered something._

"_Shizuka…" Renji whispered faintly, but the men that held him heard it loud and clear._

_The still unknown man looked at Renji and smaled at him. He caressed Renji's cheek with his finger and said softly," I know you'll remember me…" _

_So the man's name was Shizuka… Renji felt very familiar with it._

_Haruka smirked," Okay, he remembers… Geez, just don't whine anymore!" he commented._

_Renji blinked and tilted his head, confused with what Haruka just said. Shizuka noticed this and put his arm around Renji's shoulder and said," It's nothing Renji. Haruka just thought that you won't remember me. Ever. Well, he's wrong." He finished with a mocking smile to Haruka._

"_So the sound I heard just then, was actually you guys? But how can I hear your voices from that much distance?" Renji asked. "Oh, it's because we were not always here, we were watching you, hime. The sound you heard was… a small slip up." Haruka explained rather sheepishly._

"_Anyway, I bet you still don't know what you really are, right?" Shizuka said knowingly, which earned him a nod. "Well, it's okay, because you're about know."_

_Renji opened his ears and listened to what Shizuka and Haruka were about to explain._

"_Renji, to put it simply, you're a Lily. A Lily is, a heavenly being that's very rare, even on the most, you can say, 'exclusive' parts of Heaven. Now the Heaven is very different from where the souls would go when they're dead, that are either Soul Society or Hueco Mundo, where hollows live. A heaven is a place where only the holiest beings exist, namely, gods and goddesses. A Lily is formed only when the most powerful gods and goddesses commit their love to each other, just like a man and a woman could make a baby." Renji blushed at the last part and Shizuka patted his head softly._

"_Anyway, a lily grows from an infant to adult, just like a human would, but the huge difference is, a Lily would always maintain a very clean and innocent mind and soul." Haruka finished._

_Renji was still lost for words. He even stuttered when he spoke,"Y-you can't… you can't possibly s-said that… I'm… that being…? Is that why I'm changing inside out?" Shizuka and Haruka nodded at that._

_Renji looked at the flower he was still holding with wide eyes,"Wow, this is… very unexpected. No, I think I already expect this but… I just—"he was cut in the middle of speaking and felt a pair of strong and warm arms held his entire body, as if shielding him from the rest of the world. It was Haruka, he could tell._

"_It's okay Ren'ai, I understand how you feel."Shizuka whispered softly._

"_Ren'ai?" Renji asked. His name is Renji, not Ren'ai which sounded suspiciously like a girl's name._

"_Yup, it's your real name. Akayuri no Ren'ai. Basically meaning you're Ren'ai the Red Lily." Haruka explained._

"_I-I'm not gonna change into a girl, am I…?" Renji asked, afraid of the answer. Oh no, as it was, people already recognize him as a girl, he DIDN'T wanna change in to the real one!_

_Renji heard Shizuka and Haruka snickered, trying their best to contain the laughter, but failed miserably and ended up laughing very loudly, causing Renji's face to flush in anger and embarrassment. How dare they laugh at Renji's misery!_

"_Hey, stop laughing!" Renji yelled and then pouted. _

_Shizuka caressed his cheek and pinched them lightly,"You're really cute aren't you, hime?"He said while grinning ear to ear._

"_Of course you're not gonna be turned into a girl! It would ruin your image as a pure innocent soul." Haruka told Renji while still snickering softly._

_Oh. So he wasn't going to change in to a girl. Renji sighed in relief at that._

"_But, why would turning into a girl ruin my image?" Renji asked curiously._

_Haruka then said," because whether you believe it or not, a girl, in most men minds, is the symbol of… um, well, adult thing, y'know." He finished the last part unsurely, because he really didn't want to talk about that with Renji around._

_But Renji understood what Haruka was going to say, even though he really couldn't grasp what the word really mean. _

"_Okay, so..?" Renji then asked, urging Haruka to continue, but Haruka was still out of it, so Shizuka offered to explain to him._

"_Because of the complication Haruka just said, you cannot be a female because as a Lily, you must stay pure, even in other people's mind. Now as a boy, most people won't think of you as something dirty and tainted, most of the time, after all, most boys grow out in mind longer than girls thus be more, generally speaking, innocent, so problem solved and not everybody wants to think dirty thought of a boy, being a Lily just add another reason people can't think dirty about you. But it really doesn't matter whether you're a girl or boy when you're a Lily though, coz you'll have to stay pure no matter what, and it's our job to protect you from being tainted." Shizuka finished and shrugged. He was quite sure what he just said was rubbish and even he didn't remember what he just said._

"_I'm… still a little bit confused but, I think I can grasp the concept." Renji finally said, smiling softly at the two beings. Renji still couldn't believe how accepting he was to all the explanations the two men were providing him, but he didn't think of that too much, he had been thinking long enough, his head was tired._

"_Tired, hime?" Haruka asked while smiling gently, took hold of Renji and let him rest on his broader body. Renji nodded sleepily. Shizuka smiled at this and caressed Renji's hair, massaging the scalp gently._

"_It's okay, hime. You've been through a lot, you can rest. We'll protect you, now rest." Shizuka whispered softly to Renji's ear, and with that, he fell asleep._

*****EndOfDream*****

As the beautiful red-head slept on, two heavenly being watched him, both with smiles tugging on their lips; Renji was just too cute.

Renji rolled over in his sleep, clutching a fluffy pillow while talking softly in his sleep. Looked like he got another dream, and by the sweet smile, anyone could tell it was a nice dream for the red-head.

"Tai…cho… ehehe, mmm…" Renji muttered softly, a small cute laugh could be heard, making the two heavenly being smiled even wider.

"Yeah, we'll protect you, Ren'ai…" one of them said quietly.

Then suddenly, light engulfed the two handsome beings, and in their place, were two beautiful swords.

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><p>This chapter is finished! Yaaay!<p>

*silence*

I'm soooo sorry okaaayy? I know I just can't act as if I did nothing wrong, but, I don't know what to say! There are billions of reasons and excuses I wanna tell you guys, but I just don't know where to start, or if you would believe me!

But one of the main and major reasons; I've got a mega ultra super ultimate writer's block! It was HORRIBLE!

And I know this chapter might not deliver my apology to you guys quite right, to be honest, I just feel as if there's something off in this chapter, like in the chapters before, but I just couldn't place it! So I'm sooorryyy if this doesn't satisfy you guys!

But please REVIEW!


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